The United States has backed Israeli demands for the United Nations to turn over a videotape that shows the kidnappers of three Israeli soldiers last October on the Lebanon border, said reports.
In the first US stand on an increasingly bitter dispute between Israel and the United Nations, US Deputy Ambassador Cameron Hume told the Security Council Tuesday that the tape should be made public, said the Daily Star.
The United Nations is refusing to do so, claiming that it would compromise UN neutrality in south Lebanon and could jeopardize the security of its peacekeepers.
Instead, the United Nations has offered Israel the chance to view an edited version of the tape filmed by peacekeepers 18 hours after the October 7 kidnapping which obscures the faces of the possible suspects.
Instead, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan denied Tuesday Israel's request for the unedited videotape, said AFP. Israel has so far rejected the offer, insisting on a copy of the tape.
“We asked for the tape to be released,” Hume said. “We believe that under the circumstances, it’s best that it be made public.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer accused the UN of kowtowing to the Lebanese Hizbollah movement.
“The UN is cooperating or operating under the threatening hand of Hizbollah and that’s not right,” Ben-Eliezer told Army Radio, cited by Haaretz.
UN Spokesman Fred Eckhard said Annan's offer to provide edited footage remained on the table.
"The secretary general repeatedly offered to allow the Israelis to view the tape, not to give them the tape, that would be edited to black out the faces of individuals," Eckhard said.
"So, that offer remains on the table."
UN officials have expressed concern that the neutrality of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon will be breached if the United Nations is seen as providing information about one warring side to the other.
The 30-minute video footage shows efforts by UN troops to remove two abandoned cross-country vehicles and their interception by a group of armed men, allegedly from the Hizbollah.
The vehicles were marked with blood stains and carried false UN license plates, a UN official said late last week.
They are suspected of having been used by Hizbollah in the hostage-taking operation – Albawaba.com
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