PARIS, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri Saturday rejected a U.S. State Department comment that Lebanon's plans to tap additional water from its Wazzani River constituted a "unilateral step that should not be taken."
Berri, on an official visit to the French capital, insisted his country would not delay plans set for Wednesday to officially launch a new pumping station.
In an interview with United Press International in Paris, the chief legislator said he would not "postpone the date of inaugurating this project next Wednesday at 3 o'clock, whatever it costs."
On a U.S. spokesman's comments urging Lebanon to halt its plans to pump water from the river, Berri said: "Did the U.S. administration ever say anything to Israel during its 22 years of occupation of Lebanon regarding its unilateral use of Lebanese water? Or is Israel an international exception that does not have to apply any international and regional laws?"
Lebanon was set to start using more water to supply its southern villages from the Wazzani River, a tributary of the Hasbani that flows into the Jordan River and Lake Tiberias in Israel.
The Israeli government has threatened to use military force against Lebanon if it went ahead with using additional water, while international diplomatic efforts have been underway to defuse the growing tension between Lebanon and Israel over the issue.
Berri said Lebanon "wants its full share of the Wazzani water in line with international laws, and 4 million cubic meters is not enough any more."
He added that he would personally attend the inauguration of the project, "regardless of the cost, and regardless of the Israeli threats."
Berri called on the United Nations to draw up a "blue water line" along the borders with Israel, insisting that Beirut "has decided to drink from the Wazzani and Hasbani waters, and 4 million cubic meters is not enough, while Israel uses 150 million cubic meters of the water annually."
He said the issue needed to be settled once and for all, adding that he "no longer accepts the Israeli threats every time we want to drink a glass of water."
Lebanon on Friday handed over a detailed report to the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and the five members of the Security Council on the status of the Wazzani River.
An American water expert in Lebanon studying the Lebanese and Israeli viewpoints on the use of the river was expected to be joined by European experts.
In other news, Lebanese officials said Saturday that Japan pledged $1 billion in loan guarantees to Lebanon.
An official who accompanied Prime Minister Rafic Hariri on a state visit to Tokyo said Japanese officials promised to provide his country with soft loans from Japanese banks totaling $1 billion, with an interest rate of 1 percent.
The Lebanese prime minister was on a tour that also included Malaysia to invite them to an international conference at the end of the year dedicated to reducing his country's $30 billion debts.
Beirut is seeking to collect $5 billion in soft loans and grants at the conference.
