The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon rejected Thursday Israeli allegations that Lebanese Hizbollah fighters bribed troops from its Indian contingent to allow them to snatch three Israeli soldiers, said AFP.
The Hebrew-language daily Maariv, quoting an unidentified "very senior political-security source," claimed that the Shiite fundamentalist movement bought "dozens" of members of the Indian contingent of the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for several thousand dollars.
UNIFIL spokesman Timour Goksel said, "any unproven allegations are a slander and an insult.
"It is very easy to cast doubt on people and doubt their integrity by merely accusing them of maybe this and maybe that. This is nonsense and very cheap and I reject it completely."
Maariv said Israeli investigators had questioned soldiers from the contingent in India, including some who had negotiated the payment with Hizbollah. It added that senior officers of the contingent and of UNIFIL were not thought to be involved.
The paper quoted "a senior source close to" hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as saying, "There is no doubt that what happened here will shake up the organization."
But Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said on Israeli army radio Thursday that he was unaware of Maariv's sources, adding: "We must be prudent, and verify what is the case."
Israel is furious with the UN because it refuses to hand over a videotape filmed by an Indian soldier of UNIFIL the day after Hizbollah seized the Israeli soldiers on October 7.
The tape shows the scene near the Israeli-occupied Shabaa Farms area where the kidnapping took place, including vehicles used by Hizbollah and a number of Lebanese.
The UN, which only recently admitted the existence of the videotape despite repeated Israeli requests, says Israel can only see an edited version with the faces of the Lebanese obscured.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday ordered an internal inquiry into the "mishandling" of the Israeli request for the tape, said the UN news service.
Spokesman Fred Eckhard told the press at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday that the inquiry, to be conducted by UN Undersecretary General for Management Joseph Connor, would also look into the subsequent handling of the tape and exchanges with the Israeli government.
"Mr. Connor has been asked to report to the Secretary General as soon as possible," the spokesman said.
Explaining the motivation behind the probe, Eckhard said "frankly, [UNIFIL] was embarrassed, and its credibility was hurt, by what appears to be a mishandling of this event."
"The secretary general I think, as a manager, wants to have a review of the circumstances under which filming is done in peacekeeping missions and the way in which information is moved up the chain of command," he said.
But the United Nations stood firm in its refusal to give Israel an unedited version of the tape. "Our invitation to view an edited version of the tape is the secretary general's final offer," Eckhard stressed.
Hizbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah warned Monday that the United Nations would be deemed to be "spying for the enemy" if it handed the videotape over to Israel.
The case has sparked new tension between Israel and the United Nations, which the Jewish state has long regarded as having an anti-Israeli bias.
"Definitely, it's not a good point in the relations between Israel and the UN," an Israeli diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Another diplomat said the dispute could undercut efforts by the United Nations to be "an honest broker" between conflicting parties in the Middle East.
Israel welcomed news of the internal UN inquiry but continued to insist that it be provided with an unedited version of the tape.
A defense ministry statement said Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer would meet Annan in New York in 10 days, said Haaretz.
The two will discuss what the UN knows about the missing three soldiers held by the militant Hizbollah organization, an official told the paper - Albawaba.com
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