Israeli and UN officials agreed Tuesday on the terms for viewing two videotapes connected to the capture of three Israeli soldiers in occupied south Lebanon last year, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Yehuda Lancry, said.
One tape will be shown in edited form so as to obscure the faces of Lebanese Hizbollah resistance fighters who are thought to have been involved in the kidnappings, said AFP.
"We are satisfied with this arrangement," Lancry told reporters after a 45-minute meeting with senior UN officials, held to iron out snags which had prevented a screening of the tapes scheduled earlier in the day.
Under the arrangement, a delegation including three high-ranking Israeli army officers will view the tapes here on Wednesday, while families of the missing soldiers and forensic experts will see them later in Vienna.
"We will have to agree on a date" for the second screening, Lancry said, but UN sources said they expected it to be in about a week's time.
Following disagreements on terms laid down by the UN before the agreement, the three Israel defense officials did not view the tapes, said Haaretz newspaper.
Senior sources in the Israel delegation to the UN had expressed frustration and disappointment, but failed to describe the situation as a "crisis" in relations with the world body, the paper said.
Israel has demanded to see the original videotape, but the UN has offered only an edited version, with the faces of the Hizbollah resistance fighters blacked out to protect their identities.
In the past, the UN has said revealing the identity of the Hizbollah captors would endanger their mission in Lebanon – Albawaba.com
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