Recent developments along the Syrian-Israeli border have raised security concerns among Lebanese officials, especially following US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Israel’s 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights.
During his visit last month to Moscow, President Michel Aoun urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to help stop Israel from taking an official decision to officially annex the Golan Heights.
Beirut says the Shebaa Farms are Lebanese territory while Israel considers it part of the Golan.
The United Nations has long held the area, along with its adjacent Kfarshouba Hills, was inside Syrian territory occupied by Israeli forces in the 1967 Middle East war. But Beirut says Israel should have withdrawn from the zone when it pulled its forces out of south Lebanon in 2000.
Well-informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Aoun did not hesitate to raise the issue with any Arab or foreign visitor to Lebanon. He discussed it with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was on a trip to Lebanon last month, and with Arab leaders on the sidelines of the 30th Arab League Summit held in Tunis on March 30.
The president also talked about the fate of the Kfarshuba Hills during his meetings with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides last week in Beirut.
Well-informed diplomatic sources admitted that the liberation of the Shebaa Farms would not be easy with only Lebanon’s official recognition. Liberation would either be achieved through the resistance or a Security Council resolution backed by the permanent members.
“With regards to the first option, there is a deficiency in the military force due to the superiority of Israeli power, unless it was decided to open a resistance front that will lead to the displacement of the population from the south and the destruction of vital infrastructure of water and electricity, the airport and military barracks, as happened during the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon,” the sources explained.
According to the same sources, “the two options are feasible in light of local and global circumstances, especially Trump’s absolute support for Israel.”
