UN Calls For Calm Along Lebanese-Israeli Border

UN Envoy Calls For Calm Along Lebanese-Israeli Separation Line After Overflights

A day after arriving to take up his new post, the United Nations envoy for southern Lebanon called on all parties today to maintain "total calm" along the Blue Line separating Israel and Lebanon, citing a Hezbollah drone that breached Israeli airspace yesterday and the most recent Israeli overflights of Lebanese territory.

It may have been the first such appeal by Geir Pedersen, who arrived in Beirut yesterday to succeed Terje Roed-Larsen as Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Personal Representative for Southern Lebanon, but for the UN it was only the latest in a long series over Blue Line violations in recent years.

In introductory calls today on Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, Assembly Speaker Nabih Berri and Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud, Mr. Pedersen expressed the UN's continuing concern about aerial violations.

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