Lebanon’s Air Blockade Lifted but Sea Still Closed

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.09.2006 13:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Israel lifted its air blockade of Lebanon yesterday
after eight weeks, reported AFP quoting Mark Regev, the Israeli Foreign
Ministry spokesman. The first airliner from Paris with 150 passengers
aboard landed at Rafik al-Hariri International Airport in Beirut.

Israel did not carry out its pledge to lift the sea blockade at
the same time, citing the inability of a UN-backed multinational
peacekeeping force to deploy enough ships off the coast to guarantee
the arms embargo would remain intact. Prime Minister of Israel Ehud
Olmert said in a statement Wednesday that United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan had assured him that French, Italian, British, and
Greek vessels would monitor the coast until the German Navy deployed
in roughly two weeks.