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General Wanted for Having Tea with Israelis

Lebanon`s Interior Minister, Ahmed Fatfat, said on Thursday that Brigadier General Adnan Daoud, head of a 1,000 strong joint army-police force in the southern Lebanese town of Marjayoun, had been summoned and taken into custody pending further questioning. Lebanon remains in an official state of war with Israel, and its laws forbid Lebanese citizens from having dealings with the Jewish state.

Why was Brig.-Gen. Daoud arrested? The general, and 350 of his men, were held by the Israelis for twenty-four hours before being released, and evidence surfaced that he had held polite conversation over a cup of tea with members of the Israeli forces who were holding him. Advancing Israeli forces entered Marjayoun and commandeered the barracks housing Daoud`s troops toward the end of their recent campaign against terror group Hizballah, which the Lebanese government has not complied with UN demands to disarm.

A video shot during that time, and shown on Israeli and Lebanese television Wednesday, reportedly shows General Daoud sharing tea and conversing with smiling Israeli soldiers in the courtyard of the base. Thousands of Lebanese, who worked in Israel during the Jewish state`s 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, were tried and sentenced to jail terms after the withdrawal of the Israel in May 2000.