Less than three hours ago, just after sunset, they had been snatched out of a small clearing along the Lebanese-Syrian border by an Israeli CH-53 helicopter.

An Israeli air raid on Feb. 20, the first since the recent deployment of the Lebanese army, destroyed a building in Ezzi, close to the Lebanese-Syrian border.

The northwestern edge of the area corresponds to the international Lebanese-Syrian border (still recognized by the United Nations) along that ridge.

These peaks are snow-covered for much of the year and are located on the Lebanese-Syrian border.

"Without international observers along the Lebanese-Syrian border, there will be no solution," the Lebanese Druse leader Walid Jumblatt told a rally of his supporters last week.

On Sunday, border guards and security agents fought with a group along the Lebanese-Syrian border, leaving one of the suspected militants and two guards dead.

Complicating matters, Syria threatened to close the Lebanese-Syrian border - Lebanon's only land outlet - if UN troops are sent there.

Therefore, I suggest we must close and seal the Lebanese-Syrian border, send an EU monitoring mission such as the one sent to Serbia and Republika Srpska in the mid-1990s.

Later in July, Fuad Chehab was to be elected Lebanon's new president and he met Nasser at the Lebanese-Syrian border.

From this tri-point on the Hasbani the boundary follows the river northward to the village of Ghajar, then northeast, forming the Lebanese-Syrian border.