Lebanon plans UN complaint against Israel over border wall

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BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanon will file a complaint to the U.N. Security Council against Israel for constructing a concrete wall along Lebanon’s southern border that extends beyond the “Blue Line”, the Lebanese presidency said on Saturday.

The Blue Line is a U.N.-mapped line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israeli forces withdrew to the Blue Line when they left south Lebanon in 2000.

A spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, said on Friday the wall has made more than 4,000 square meters (nearly an acre) of Lebanese territory inaccessible to the local population.

The Lebanese presidency echoed his remarks, saying in a statement that Israel’s ongoing construction constituted “a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 and an infringement on Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Dujarric said the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had requested that the wall be removed.

An Israeli military spokesperson denied on Friday that the wall crossed the Blue Line.

“The wall is part of a broader IDF plan whose construction began in 2022,” the spokesperson said, referring to the Israel Defence Forces.

“Since the start of the war, and as part of lessons learned from it, the IDF has been advancing a series of measures, including reinforcing the physical barrier along the northern border.”

UNIFIL, established in 1978, operates between the Litani River in the north and the Blue Line in the south. The mission has more than 10,000 troops from 50 countries and about 800 civilian staff, according to its website.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam; Writing by Hatem MaherEditing by Gareth Jones)