EGYPT: Lebanese Christian Leader Samir Geagea hopes Egypt can help pressure Israel to withdraw from the Shebaa farms
Record ID:
738043
EGYPT: Lebanese Christian Leader Samir Geagea hopes Egypt can help pressure Israel to withdraw from the Shebaa farms
- Title: EGYPT: Lebanese Christian Leader Samir Geagea hopes Egypt can help pressure Israel to withdraw from the Shebaa farms
- Date: 15th October 2008
- Summary: VARIOUS OF EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK MEETING HEAD OF LEBANESE FORCES PARTY, SAMIR GEAGEA
- Embargoed: 30th October 2008 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Egypt
- Country: Egypt
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVAC6Q240YB54T5R47S28Z5SZJLD
- Story Text: Lebanese Christian leader Samir Geagea called on Tuesday (October 14) for Egypt's assistance in pressuring Israel to withdraw from the occupied Shebaa farms area in the south of the country.
Geagea, who met with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, said he hoped Egypt would use its good relations with the United States to exert pressure on Israel.
"The first opening could be with the help of the Egyptian state especially with regards to its relationship with the United States to put pressure on Israel to withdraw from the [Shebaa] farms," Geagea told reporters.
"And the second opening, there is a second option, related to the Shebaa Farms, to persuade our Syrian brothers to sign a combined document with the Lebanese government confirming that Shebaa farms belong to Lebanon,"
he added.
Geagea, the controversial leader of the Lebanese Forces party, who was convicted of war crimes after the Lebanese civil war and pardoned in 2005, also questioned the reason for the recent deployment of Syrian troops on the Lebanese border.
"And from another side, if the aim was to control the borders, this would require total coordination with the Lebanese army to have an equal deployment on the other side, to control the border from both sides. So we are certain that the aim of the deployment is not to control the borders," he said.
While Syria has said that the troops are there to prevent smuggling, Geagea speculated that the real reason may be to intimidate Lebanon, or for Syria to use it as a "joker" if the struggle with Western nations, that demanded its withdrawal from Lebanon, heats up again. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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