UN envoy urges Lebanese government to control border, express "deep concern" over the rocket fire.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFkatyusha in K Shmona 298(photo credit: Channel 1)
Lebanon's prime minister condemned on Wednesday a rocket barrage fired a day earlier into northern Israel, while a UN envoy urged the Lebanese government to assert its control over the tense border region to prevent future attacks on the Jewish state.
"These acts, the firing of rockets and the Israeli raids and air violations, are eventually aimed at undermining stability in Lebanon and distracting attention from efforts to continue internal dialogue on major issues," Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said in a statement carried by the official National News Agency.
Saniora urged Palestinian groups to clearly condemn such attacks and cooperate with the government to end the presence of weapons outside Palestinian camps.
On Saniora's instructions, the Foreign Ministry informed the United Nations that the Lebanese government was determined to hunt down the persons who fired the rockets and to prevent a recurrence of such acts.
Geir Pedersen, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's personal representative for Lebanon, expressed "his deep concern" over the rocket fire.
In a statement, Pedersen "once again urged the government of Lebanon to extend its authority over all of its territory and exert its monopoly on the use of force."
The Lebanese government has rejected repeated UN and US demands to deploy the army along the country's southern border following the Israeli withdrawal from the area in 2000, saying it will not serve as an Israeli protection force.
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