05/08/2009 Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman arrived at Ghajar Wednesday in order to conduct a tour in the village, which lies on both sides of the Lebanese border. "There will be no agreement with Lebanon and Syria. Ghajar is entirely under Israeli sovereignty," he announced after listening to pleas from residents to refrain from dividing the village and the families living there.

"Our decision regarding Ghajar will be based on security and humanitarian concerns; there are 2,000 residents here. We are discussing our thoughts with the US and the UN, but there is no connection to the Syrians or the Lebanese," Lieberman said after touring the area of Mount Dov and the Shebaa Farms and arriving at the village.

The Israeli minister's deputy, Danny Ayalon, said the Foreign Ministry's recommendations would be brought before the security cabinet in the coming weeks. "This is a first-priority issue," he told Ynet. "We must remember that the village is an inseparable part of land recovered from the Syrians in 1967. This is not territory conquered in Lebanon, so any Syrian claim that this is Lebanese land is strange, if not outright hypocritical."

Israeli daily Haaretz learned on Tuesday that Lieberman intends to propose building a fence in the middle of Ghajar, at the meeting of the security cabinet in the coming weeks.

Following his visit on Wednesday, Lieberman played down reports of a proposal for a fence, saying it was "too early" to make any permanent decisions on the matter. "We are touring the area? and trying to reach the best decisions," Lieberman said following his visit. "Everyone in the media is quick to jump to conclusions, but we must first learn all the facts."

Ghajar was annexed in 1978 and therefore it does not fall under UN resolution 1701 but under UN resolution 425 that obligates Israel to withdraw from occupied territories in Lebanon.

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