BEIRUT, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab asserted on Wednesday that Lebanon will not give up on any inch of its territories, the National News Agency reported.
"We will hold on to our rights by all means in coordination with the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the international community," the minister said on his first visit to the UNIFIL's headquarters in Naqoura.
Bou Saab said that there are a great number of operations in this area to ensure the security and protect the country against any potential Israeli attack.
"We have 5,000 Lebanese soldiers in the southern of Litani while we need 10,000 soldiers to be able to cover the whole area," he said, adding that the Lebanese army needs trained people in addition to advanced equipments.
The United Nations has put a plan to increase the number of the Lebanese soldiers and gradually reduce the UNIFIL's presence in the south, the minister said.
Bou Saab praised the work done by the UN peacekeeping force in the south to maintain stability, but criticized the lack of response from the international community to the daily Israeli violations of Lebanese sovereignty.
"It is not acceptable that we do not hear anything from the international community except for when a violation is done by Lebanon, when a herder crosses the border or someone took a photograph of the border," Bou Saab said.
