26 July -- An envoy of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today again toured southern Lebanon to check for any violations of the "Line of Withdrawal" agreed to by both Lebanon and Israel, a UN spokesman said in New York.
Briefing correspondents at UN Headquarters, spokesman Fred Eckhard said that Special Envoy Terje Roed-Larson and General James Sreenan, the Force Commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), inspected the "blue line" by air and by road, and later met with the head of the Israeli army's northern command, General Gabriel Askanazi, for over two hours.
Mr. Roed-Larson said afterwards that he had received a strong commitment from the Israeli side that they would immediately begin rectifying any violations that had been found today, and that they would fix any future violations reported to them by UNIFIL, Mr. Eckhard said. "A number of UNIFIL teams are still out on the Line of Withdrawal and are expected to report back shortly on any other problems that may have been found."
According to Mr. Eckhard, Mr. Roed-Larson remained "cautious" but still hoped to be in a position to report back tonight to Lebanese President Emile Lahoud that all the outstanding violations had been taken care of. If this is the case, deployment of UNIFIL units as well as Lebanese Government security forces can commence either late tonight or tomorrow, the spokesman said.
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