Lebanon, Dec. 31 -- Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said Sunday that Israel should recognize Palestinian rights and stop its "maneuvers" if it wants to live in peace with its Arab neighbors.
"Israel should refrain from maneuvers and take the decision related to its future in the region, whether it wants to live in peace with its neighbors or stay within the circle of unrest," Hariri told al-Mostaqbal newspaper. "Living in peace has one road which is to recognize the international resolutions related to Arab rights and the rights of the Palestinian people."
He said Israel was still "undecisive about achieving a just settlement of the Arab-Israeli peace struggle" and accused its Prime Minister Ehud Barak of maneuvering about recent peace proposals and efforts "since he rejected the U.S. ideas and announced refusal of Palestinian sovereignty over the al-Haram al-Sharif (mosque in Jerusalem) and the right of the Palestinian refugees" to return to their homeland. Hariri said Barak's main concern was to "achieve victory in the coming (Israeli early general) elections and therefore return" to power as prime minister.
He explained that Barak's latest position from the peace proposals with the Palestinians was affected by the election battle in his country.
On his part, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said his country will not accept "an incomplete peace that would lay the basis for other wars in the region" and renewed refusal to settle some 350,000 Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon since their exodus from Palestine in 1948. Lahoud was quoted by al-Mostaqbal as saying that Lebanon "refuses any equation that would lead to settling the Palestinians on its soil when what is required is that they return to their land in line with a phased timetable agreed upon with Lebanon."
He hoped that "a just, comprehensive and lasting peace which would guarantee security and stability to the countries of the region" be achieved next year.
He also expressed hope that the disputed border area of the Shabaa farms and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights should be liberated and the remaining 19 Lebanese detainees held in Israeli jails be released in the year 2001.
The Shabaa farms were not relinquished by Israel when it pulled out its troops from south Lebanon on May 24, ending 22 years of occupation. While Lebanon insisted the farms belonged to Lebanon, Israel and the United Nations argued they were seized from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Lebanon's militant group has pledged to continue fighting Israel until recuperating the Shabaa farms and secure the release of the Lebanese detainees.
