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| 20/06/2008 On May 25, 2000, the Islamic Resistance was able to achieve victory, forcing Israeli enemy forces to withdraw from South Lebanon. However, the withdrawal remained incomplete as the Lebanese Shabaa Farms are still occupied.
Eight years have passed and nothing has changed. Israel refuses to pull out and the international community has been claiming the Farms are not Lebanese, thus, they are not part of resolution 425 that stipulates the Israeli withdrawal from all Lebanese territories.
Suddenly, and without prior notice, everything changes. In the midst of persistent attempts, in and outside Lebanon, to aim at the resistance to weaken in an introduction to its disarmament, the international community brings back the Shebaa Farms issue under the spotlight.
It goes without saying that the international community does not act, especially on issues involving Israel, without prior consent by Washington.
"The United States believes that the time has come to deal with the Shebaa Farms issue... in accordance with (UN Security Council Resolution) 1701," Rice said in her surprise visit to Lebanon last Monday.
She told reporters Washington intends to press US Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to "lend his good offices" to resolve the dispute over the sovereignty of the territory. "The secretary general should intensify his efforts," she said.
Rice met Ban on Thursday.
The Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Rice gave the UN chief the green light to declare, in his coming report, that the Shabaa Farms is a Lebanese territory.
"I think that at the present time, we will keep our discussion with Lebanon and Israel restricted to the farms," US Foreign Affairs Spokesman Tom Casey had said ahead of the meeting.
Also reflecting the international awakening on the Shabaa Farms identity, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said after having met with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that the issue will not be an easy one to solve. "The previous suggestion of giving the UN a role in the settlement was re-proposed," Kouchner said. French sources told Al-Akhbar that Israel informed Paris of its openness to resolve the issue. The sources noted that the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who's visiting Israel next week, will return from his tour with some solutions, among which is the proposal to put the Farms under UN supervision pending the territory's return to Lebanon.
The daily also said Egypt has intervened in the Shebaa Farms issue. Citing well-informed Egyptian sources, it said that President Hosni Mubarak will seek to "persuade" Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh next week "to return Shebaa Farms to Lebanon."
'SHABAA FARMS RETURN WOULD NOT ELIMINATE RESISTANCE'
The "awakening" aims at removing any pretext for the continuation of the resistance and, therefore, disarm it.
Hezbollah said it welcomes the return of any occupied land to the Lebanese sovereignty, but stressed Shabaa Farms return would not end the resistance movement.
According to Loyalty to the Resistance bloc member MP Nawwar Sahili, "what's being circulated about the Shebaa Farm issue is still mere news reports. There is nothing concrete yet.
"Nevertheless, the return of the Shabaa Farms would be another victory for the resistance. If it were not for the resistance we would not have regained any of our occupied lands," Sahili said.
"Whoever seeks to return Shabaa just to remove the "pretext" of the resistance does not realize what resistance means," he pointed out. The Hezbollah MP stressed that it was the resistance's duty to defend Lebanon against Israeli ambitions. "The resistance must stay ready to deter any aggression against the country."
For his part, the Minister of Labor in the caretaker government Trad Hmadeh said that "the resistance weapons will stay put and be used for the defense of Lebanon and all Lebanese people against the Israeli enemy, which is at our border, the border of occupied Palestine."
"International resolutions are nothing but ink on paper; the only truth is the Resistance and its valor in liberating land," Hmadeh said. | 
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