The Lebanese government and Hizbollah movement Saturday slammed a UN decision to let Israel view a video cassette filmed the day after the capture of three Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah in October, said AFP.
Hizbollah said in a statement the move "leads us to raise questions on the role of the United Nations in passing on information to Israel, whatever the content of the cassette may be."
The Lebanese presidency said in a statement: "The Lebanese authorities refuse to view the video cassette filmed by an Indian member of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) last October, following the operation which resulted in the capture of Israeli soldiers in the Shabaa Farms sector."
"The Lebanese authorities consider that the viewing of this video cassette would constitute a dangerous precedent and transmit information gathered on Lebanese territory to the Israeli enemy, which is in contradiction of UNIFIL's mission," the statement added, cited by the agency.
The United Nations said Friday it would allow the governments of Israel and Lebanon to see the video, but would first alter the tape to obscure faces of presumed members of Hizbollah.
But Israel is rejecting the terms and conditions that the United Nations has attached to the viewing of the videotape, said Haaretz newspaper.
Nonetheless, intensive diplomatic contacts are going on in an effort to resolve the issue, it added.
Adding further to the growing imbroglio, the Israeli army expressed doubt regarding the identity of the persons seen in a photograph shown on Friday on Channel Two.
Lebanese sources say that the two young men, lying in a hospital in Beirut, are two of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers.
Announcing the decision, Jean-Marie Guehenno, undersecretary general for peacekeeping, said the UN was acting out of concern for the soldiers' families.
"In our view, nothing on that tape sheds light on the circumstances of the abduction or on the conditions of the abductees," he said.
He added that "the humanitarian considerations put forward by the government of Israel warrant this exception to the principle of confidentiality but the security considerations also require that some precautions be taken."
The personal representative of the UN secretary general in Lebanon, Staffan de Mistura, discussed the issue Saturday with the head of the Lebanese foreign ministry's political department, Naji Abu Assi, and Hizbollah official, Wafic Safa, said AFP.
De Mistura said after the talks that he wanted to be sure that Lebanon was informed of the exact content of Guehenno's statement.
"I also want to be sure that the Lebanese foreign ministry is aware of a letter sent last night by Mr. Guehenno to the Lebanese delegate at the United Nations, Ambassador Salim Tadmuri," he added.
The UN only admitted officially to the existence of the videotape on Thursday, after Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer sent a letter to asking for it.
Guehenno denied that the world body kept quiet about the tape for fear of reprisals by Hizbollah on UN troops deployed in southern Lebanon, in a region controlled by the fundamentalist group since the Israeli withdrawal in May 2000 after 22 years of occupation.
"We are not covering up anything, from the outset. We are covering the faces because we have to protect the security of our people," Guehenno said at a news conference at the United Nations in New York.
Separately on Saturday, the leader of Hizbollah in Parliament, Sheikh Mohammad Raad, said images shown Friday by Israel's Channel Two of supposed photographs of the three kidnapped soldiers were "fake," said AFP.
"It is a piece of theater set up by Israel to blame the United Nations and get a prisoner exchange on Israeli terms," he added, after a meeting in southern Lebanon with the president of the Canadian-Lebanese friendship society, Yvon Charlionneau – Albawaba.com
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