UNIFIL chief seeks meeting with Defense Minister Barak, in vain
By Barak Ravid
August 21, 2008
Haaretz
Original Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1013750.html


The commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Maj.-Gen. Claudio Graziano, complained last week that Defense Minister Ehud Barak refuses to meet with him to discuss the situation on the Lebanese border and implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701, a diplomatic source said. 

UNIFIL's commander accused Israel of violating the resolution by flying over Lebanon, refusing to help remove unexploded cluster bombs fired during the Second Lebanon War and failing to withdraw from Ghajar village. 

I've been asking for a meeting with Barak for six months, but they keep putting me off, Graziano reportedly told Dan Carmon, acting head of Israel's delegation to the UN, at a meeting between the two last week. 

The source said Graziano has been complaining that he hasn't been able to meet Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi either. The only senior defense officials willing to meet him were the head of the IDF Planning Branch, Brig. Gen. Amir Eshel, and GOC Northern Command Gadi Eisenkot. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met Graziano about a year ago. 

Barak has been campaigning strongly against Resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War. He has been telling the public and foreign diplomats repeatedly that it has been a failure and a serious miscalculation by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Livni. Barak says Resolution 1701 has collapsed and UNIFIL has failed to prevent Hezbollah from accumulating more power. 

If this is true, it is strange that Barak wouldn't meet Graziano to protest on Israel's behalf and explain its demands, the source said. It may not solve anything but would probably lead to a better understanding of Israel's security needs. 

Graziano rejected Carmon's accusation that UNIFIL was not providing the Security Council with accurate reports on Hezbollal's growing strength south of the Litani. He said there was no proof Hezbollah was growing stronger in UNIFIL's area, and that Israel has shown UNIFIL no intelligence to this effect. 

Graziano denied that Hezbollah was violating the Security Council resolution. He said Israel was doing so by flying over Lebanon and infringing its sovereignty. Also, despite UNIFIL's requests, Israel refuses to disclose the precise location of unexploded cluster bombs. 

In addition, Israel has not pulled out of Ghajar, a village straddling the border between Lebanon and the Golan, as Resolution 1701 stipulates, he said.