In a presidential statement — which has less weight than a resolution — the members of the UN Security Council welcomed the SG’s appointment of a cartographer (map maker) to “to review relevant material and develop an accurate territorial definition of the Shabaa Farms area”
This area, on the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, has been the cause of tensions and more since Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000.
Following Israel’s withdrawal, the UN SG determined that the Shebaa Farms belongs to Syria (which no longer controls the area), despite the fact that both Syria and Lebanon said that Shebaa Farms was Lebanese. Unwilling if not unable to backtrack, the SG’s appointment of a cartographer to study the issue means that no decision will be forthcoming soon.
Israel’s attack on Lebanon this past summer was provoked by Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers in this area.