BEIRUT, Lebanon, October 27(Lebanonwire) -- The Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) said it had released the six Lebanese Army soldiers who “wandered” into the group’s base near the Syrian border and denied shooting dead a civilian surveyor two days earlier.

PFLP-GC leader Ahmad Jibril told Lebanese television New TV that the group was not looking for confrontations with the Lebanese army and had released the half-dozen army troops who had entered their base in the Beqaa.

“They came into our camp uninvited equipped with GPRS tracking devices,” Jibril told the station, “they were captured, interrogated and later released to the army, who subsequently told us that these soldiers were acting on an individual basis and did not reflect the policy of the army.”

Army chief Michel Suleiman refused to comment on the issue, denying the soldiers were ever captured.

Jibril said that the PFLP-GC was working hand in hand with the army to confront the threat of the Zionist enemy.

“I am concerned at the conspiracy being weaved against the army, trying to pit it against Palestinians and create division among its ranks, and we reserve the right to verbally reject the accusations manufactured by the Saad Haririr-led Future Movement media and their affiliated stations in the Arab world, who claim that we are a band of arms smugglers and terrorists,” Jibril said.

Jibril also denied having shot and killed a civilian surveyor two days earlier, near the demarcation line with the Syria. “We didn’t kill anyone,” Jibril said.

During a Cabinet Meeting in Baabda Palace Thursday, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said, “we won’t be led into a confrontation with the Palestinians.”

“We insist on conducting an internal dialogue with the Palestinian factions with regards to implementing UN 1559, and soon, I will personally head the committee that will negotiate this issue with the Palestinians,” Siniora announced.

UN 1559 calls for disarming all militia in Lebanon and giving the Lebanese Army full territorial control over the country.

Siniora also confirmed that the Shebaa Farms are Lebanese, thus legitimizing the resistance effort by Hezbollah despite a recent report to the contrary by Terje-Roed Larsen, UN Special Middle East Envoy for the implementation of UN 1559.

President Emile Lahoud who presided over the Cabinet session commented on Larsen’s report by saying, “they have their views and we have ours.”

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