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UN calls for Lebanon ceasefire
12/08/2006 07:28 - (SA)
United Nations - The UN Security Council unanimously called for an immediate end to a month of bloody fighting between Israel and Hezbollah Friday even as the violence claimed more lives.
The resolution, drafted by the United States and France, paves the way for the deployment of 15 000 UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and comes after days of frantic shuttle diplomacy at the United Nations and in the Middle East.
Resolution 1701 also calls for all Israeli troops to withdraw from southern Lebanon after an end to the fighting - the timing for which has yet to be agreed by Lebanon and Israel.
The agreement calls for "a full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations."
Shortly before the long-awaited resolution was passed, at least seven people were killed when Israeli drones attacked a convoy of Lebanese security forces and civilians who had earlier been under UN escort.
The incident saw three Lebanese army vehicles hit and set ablaze, police said, adding that the victims were mostly civilians. The convoy contained hundreds of Lebanese soldiers and civilians fleeing the Israeli bombardments.
Clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah also continued, leaving 16 Israeli soldiers wounded, military sources said. More than four weeks of conflict in the region have left more than 1 100 dead, mainly in Lebanon.
Urge his cabinet to accept the resolution
With Israel pursuing its military offensive, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would urge his cabinet to accept the resolution when it meets on Sunday, according to a government spokesman.
The Lebanese cabinet was also to meet on Saturday and US officials said it was expected to accept the resolution, which also calls for the release of two Israeli soldiers whose abduction by Hezbollah triggered the war on July 12.
But Lebanon's acting Foreign Minister Tarek Mitri expressed profound doubts about the likelihood of the resolution being able to end the month-old war and was scathing in his criticism of Israel.
"For a month now, as the world continues to watch and the international community continues to watch, Israel has besieged and ravaged Lebanon, creating a humanitarian and environmental disaster," he said.
Mitri characterised the weeks of Israeli artillery and aerial bombardments against his country as a "strategy of terror" and a "obscenely disproportionate and unjustifiable" retaliation for Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel.
The minister went on to express grave concerns about the terms of the UN ceasefire plan.
"The Lebanese are not confident in Israeli distinction between 'defensive' and 'offensive'," he added. "The end to military operations should be unqualified."
Israel's ambassador Dan Gillerman laid the blame for the conflict with Lebanon and said the issue would return to the United Nations if Lebanon failed to implement its side of the proposed ceasefire.
Rice warned Iran and Syria
In a warning to Hezbollah's main backers, meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran and Syria to respect the resolution.
"We call upon every state, especially Iran and Syria, to respect the sovereignty of the Lebanese government and the will of the international community," she told the Security Council.
She also said "Hezbollah now faces a clear choice between war and peace" in light of the resolution, which Rice said "helped to open a path to lasting peace between Lebanon and Israel."
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the time it had taken the major powers to call for a cessation of hostilities had "badly shaken" the world's faith in the council.
"I would be remiss if I did not tell you how profoundly disappointed I am that the council did not reach this point much, much earlier," he said in opening the meeting.
"All members of this council must be aware that this inability to act sooner has badly shaken the world's faith in its authority and integrity," he said.
The text authorizes an increase in the current UN force's strength to a maximum of 15 000 troops from its current size of about 1 190 troops. They will be matched by the 15 000 troops Lebanon plans to send to the south.
The UN force will monitor the cessation of hostilities and any permanent ceasefire and back up Lebanese armed forces as they deploy across the region now dominated by Hezbollah.
The resolution gives the UN force the power to "take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces, and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind."
French ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said he thought the extra troops could be deployed "very swiftly". A US official said a meeting could be held at the UN headquarters on Saturday for potential troop contributors.
- SAPA
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