Daily Star Political News: US wants Lebanon to talk to Israel about Shebaa

Daily Star staff Thursday, July 24, 2008 BEIRUT: A US initiative to resolve the dispute over the occupied Shebaa Farms is still on the table, and is being considered by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, An-Nahar newspaper's correspondent in Washington on Wednesday quoted an American official as saying. "The essence of the proposal is that Lebanon engages in indirect negotiations over the fate of Shebaa Farms, either through United Nations mediation or through an intermediary of the Tripartite Military Committee that groups Israel, Lebanon, and the UN," An-Nahar said. The same official and other US officials told An-Nahar that placing the territory under UN guardianship following an Israeli withdrawal, as Lebanon has demanded, would not be possible "before the final status of the zone has been determined." "The officials... [read full story]