Alintiqad Exclusive: Lebanese Army to Build New Road, Parallel to Blue Line

Local Translator

From Al Intiqad By Fatima Shouaib

The borderline between Lebanon and the Palestinian occupied territories is measured to be more than 100 kilometers square.

These borders were recognized after the 2000 Zionist enemy's withdrawal from most of the Lebanese occupied territories.

Back then, the demarcating "Blue line" was imposed by the United Nations in order to affirm the "Israeli" withdrawal, and so it would be a mark for the UN troops, through which they could specify violations of that line that was adopted to protect Lebanon.

In the year 2006, international resolution 1701 was issued, after the brutal war launched by the enemy on Lebanon, in which the resistance defeated the enemy throughout 33 days, forcing its retroversion behind the "Blue line", except for the village of Ghajar.

The international resolution requested summoning more temporary UNIFIL troops for regions southern the Laytani River, where its duty was supposedly to support the Lebanese army which spread its brigades near the blue line.

The need for military roads was then noticed; roads that would enable the Lebanese army of reaching regions close to the Zionist sites and the Blue line, by that the monitoring process becomes easier.

These roads could also help in preventing violations committed by the enemy, in addition to facilitating transportation between military army points and developed sites to provide technical and logistic support.

The project to build a military road was then launched by the Lebanese army in cooperation with the UNIFIL troops.

The road is divided into two parts: the first part consists of road links measured to be around 25400 meters long, and a new parallel road measured to be 72550 meters long.

Lebanese Army Major General Antoine Mourad

Lebanese Army Major General Antoine Mourad told Alintiqad.net that these roads are to facilitate the Lebanese army's duty in practicing its sovereignty over Lebanon.

Mourad said, "The aim of the military road is to facilitate the passage of army and UNIFIL patrols, which in their turn will be able to monitor the Blue Line up close and accurately, and save time to come back and forth between borders".

"They can link advanced Lebanese army sites together to facilitate the defense operation, exchange support, and encourage the citizens to make use of their abandoned territories", Maj. Gen. Mourad said.

Answering a question, Mourad said that the road cannot be used by civilians, because it is a deterrence military project.

On the other hand, Mourad considered that the building of these roads means that life will be restored in areas that were far from reach, adding that the landowners can open agricultural roads in light of every day Lebanese army patrols in those regions.

Concerning the difficulties the military road-building project faces, Maj. Gen. Mourad said that the main obstacle is the "Israeli" mines dispersed in the region for many years,adding that the removal of these bombs and cleaning the road requires a lot of time and effort especially that the road is 15 meters wide.

Regarding any "Israeli" objections against this project, Mourad said, "As a Lebanese government, we practice our sovereignty on our territories, and we are not obliged to consult anyone in case we want build any project on our territories, even if the "Israeli" enemy objected.

Maj. Gen. Antoine Mourad added, "The "Israeli" enemy has no right to do so, and we will not be concerned with any objection, because we are practicing a right of our rights, and we are free with what, where, and when we want to do ".

Road Links being built:
3400 meters for Ras Al Naqoura – Labouna
360 meters for Alma Al Shaab
470 meters for Al Thahira
490 meters for Rmeish – Yaroun
500 meters for Al Manara – Al Abbad "Israeli" site
1130 meters for Markaba – Al Adeissy
435 meters for Al Amra – Abel Al Qameh and Al Wazzani