DATE=4/17/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-N ISRAEL-LEBANON WITHDRAWAL (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-261427
BYLINE=BRECK ARDERY
DATELINE=UNITED NATIONS
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The Israeli government has notified the United
Nations that it will withdraw its forces from southern
Lebanon by early July. Correspondent Breck Ardery
reports from the United Nations.
TEXT: In a letter to U-N Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy says his nation
will remove all its forces from Lebanon by July
seventh.
Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Yehuda Lancry
says, by withdrawing from Lebanon, Israeli is
fulfilling its part of U-N Security Council
resolutions and expects other nations in the region to
do likewise.
The resolutions call for Israeli military withdrawal
and restoration of peace and security with the full
sovereignty of the Lebanese government.
The Israeli ambassador says his government would have
preferred that the withdrawal be done with the
cooperation of Syria, but that Israel has decided not
to wait for an agreement with Syria.
Mr. Lancry told reporters that the members of the pro-
Israeli South Lebanon Army - the S-L-A -- will be
relocated.
/// LANCRY ACT ///
We are going to give to the S-L-A a humanitarian
solution. That is to say an integration of the
families in Israeli, there are many of them.
And others who choose to live outside Israel are
free to do that.
/// END ACT ///
Many observers of the Middle East worry that the
Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon will create a security
vacuum in which guerilla groups will continue to
attack Israel. Some Israeli military leaders say that
could lead to a confrontation with Syria, if Syria is
seen as encouraging the guerilla attacks.
The United Nations has a 45-hundred member
peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. The impending
Israeli withdrawal means that U-N Secretary-General
Annan, in consultation with the Security Council, will
have to decide whether to increase the size of that
force. (SIGNED)
NEB/BA/LSF/RAE
17-Apr-2000 12:45 PM EDT (17-Apr-2000 1645 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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