statement read out by its January President, Augustine Mahiga of Tanzania, the council also called on Syria to take measures to stop movements of arms and personnel into Lebanon. Lebanese response The Lebanese government officially responded to the resolution on the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) website in as follows: The only foreign forces existing in Lebanon are the Israeli forces which occupy the farms of Shebaa. Whereas the Syrian forces are friendly Arab forces which entered Lebanon according to the Lebanese government's demand and their existence is regulated by the convention of brotherhood and coordination and cooperation between Lebanon and Syria and a copy of this convention was submitted to the United States at that time. - And in this context the Syrian forces carried out five redeployment operations in the Lebanese regions according to the resolution of the mutual military committee of the two brother armies. An immediate withdrawal of the Syrian Arab forces according to the security council's resolution number 1559 cannot be executed however the redeployment operations are carried out in cooperation between the two countries and specifically in the framework of the high military committee. The national resistance which is confronting the Israeli occupation is not a guerilla and it has no security role inside the country and its activities are restricted to facing the Israeli enemy. This resistance led to the withdrawal of the enemy from the bigger part of our occupied land and is still persistent to free the farms of Shebaa. Preserving this resistance constitutes a Lebanese strategic interest with the aim of relating the struggle with the enemy and regain all the Lebanese legitimate rights achieving and at the forefront the withdrawal of Israel from the farms of Shebaa and the return of the refugees to their land. As for the Palestinian presence in the camps in all its known considerations is resultant from the practices of Israel which expulsed the Palestinians and the resort of a part of them to Lebanon, and most of them live in refugee camps fostered by the United Nations and the UNRWA organization. The Palestinians are claiming the right of return according to the international resolutions and especially the resolution number 194. In this framework the government preserved their particularities inside the camps which the army encircles and does not allow the traffic of arms outside of it and the army offered many martyrs and exerted