Lebanon Objects to U.N. Tape’s Screening

Lebanon warned the United Nations on Saturday against showing Israel a videotape of the scene of a kidnapping last year of three Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud’s office said showing the tape would relay “information from inside Lebanese territory to the Israeli enemy”--an act the statement called “a deviation” from the U.N. mission in Lebanon.

The United Nations--facing mounting pressure from Israel--announced Friday that it would let Israeli officials view the video, filmed by U.N. peacekeepers 18 hours after the Israeli soldiers were captured Oct. 7 in a disputed portion of the Israeli-Lebanese border.

But the faces of any non-U.N. personnel visible in the tape would be obscured to protect their security, U.N. Undersecretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno said Friday.

Israel carries out targeted killings and has kidnapped individuals it hoped to use as bargaining chips for information or the return of its missing soldiers.

The 30-minute tape contains images of bloodstains, U.N. uniforms and forged license plates on the vehicles allegedly used by Hezbollah during the abductions in the Shabaa Farms region, Guehenno said. He said the images indicate that the kidnappers probably posed as U.N. peacekeepers.

Guehenno said the tape does not contain any useful information. Several Jewish groups in the United States have accused the United Nations of a cover-up for not releasing the tape earlier.

Hezbollah said showing the tape will bring into question “the nature of United Nations missions and its role in south Lebanon with regard to relaying information” to Israel.

The group wants to trade the three Israeli soldiers and a retired colonel, also captured in October, for Lebanese and Arab prisoners.