BEIRUT: Officials from the Lebanese and Israeli armies met Monday for a “constructive” meeting dealing with Blue Line violations and incidents, a day after the reported downing of an Israeli drone in south Lebanon.

Delegates from the two armed forces held discussions at a United Nations position at Ras al-Naqoura in the presence of senior officers from the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.

“I am very pleased with today’s deliberations that were held in a constructive atmosphere,” UNIFIL Force Commander Major General Alberto Asarta Cuevas said following the meeting. “I impressed on the parties to continue their positive engagement so that we can together build on the calm that has prevailed in our area of operations in the past several weeks.”

According to the force, Monday’s meeting tackled issues relating to the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 – drafted in the wake of the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel – and the situation along the Blue Line.

Reports over the weekend suggested that an Israeli drone had crashed close to the town of Bint Jbeil, although subsequent search efforts by the Lebanese Army, UNIFIL and Hezbollah security personnel had proved fruitless. UNIFIL had no new information Monday on the reportedly downed drone.

Although UNIFIL’s mandated operations area has been largely quiet in 2011 – compared with the explosions and cross-border fire exchanges of 2010 – several issues remain points of contention. It is close to a year since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention to withdraw Israeli troops from the northern sector of Ghajar village. Twelve months on, the upper part of Ghajar remains occupied.

In addition, Lebanon maintains that Israel routinely violates its sovereignty through near daily overflights; Israel has complained that Hezbollah is in defiance of Resolution 1701 through increasing its arsenal.