BEIRUT (AFP) -- Lebanese Foreign Minister Farez Bweiz called on the United Nations and European Union Tuesday to stop Israel from "stealing" fertile soil from occupied southern Lebanon.
"The theft of fertile land from the plain between the towns of Khiam and Hasbaya is unacceptable and will lead to an ecological catastrophe," he said in messages to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the Security Council and the EU presidency.
Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri also accused Israel of carting away earth from the area. "It was proven to us that Israel is systematically bulldozing hundreds of tonnes of earth and stealing them from the Al-Marj area ... and other regions of southern Lebanon," he said Thursday.
"They are transferring the earth into the northern Galilee for agricultural needs," Berri said in a letter addressed to the parliament speakers of Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. The letter was also sent to Annan and Arab League secretary general Esmat Abdel Meguid. Berri called on the international community to "put an end to this theft operation perpetrated by the Israeli enemy which we consider a violation of all international laws and regulations."