US, France agree UN resolution on ceasefire in Lebanon

[Owais]

US, France agree UN resolution on ceasefire in Lebanon NEW YORK: The US and France have agreed the wording of a UN resolution to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

It follows weeks of disagreement over the precise wording of an immediate call to end the violence in Lebanon.

The full 15-nation Security Council will meet later to discuss it. The US ambassador to the UN said it was likely to be adopted within days.

Details of the agreement between the US and France on the UN resolution are not yet known.

The two countries had been trying to settle their differences on the wording of the text.

Diplomats said the differences had been over the timing of a truce - whether it would come before an international force was deployed - as France had wanted - or along with the deployment.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed news of the agreement, calling it "an absolutely vital first step in bringing this tragic crisis to an end".

US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said he was keen to get the resolution adopted as quickly as possible.

 

[parihaka]

The US ambassador to the UN said it was likely to be adopted within days.

About ten days from now, I would guess. Then at least another ten to deploy.

 

[Owais]

About ten days from now, I would guess. Then at least another ten to deploy.

Guess what!?
Lebanon rejects this resolution. they want amendment in terms and conditions of cease-fire.

 

[Owais]

Lebanon demands amendments in proposed UN ceasefire draft BEIRUT: Lebanon rejects a draft of UN Security Council propsed by US and France, which aims to bring about a ceasefire with Israel, and wants the text to be amended, a government source told a French news agency on Sunday.

"The Lebanese government is opposed to the Franco-American draft and has sent Lebanon's representative to the UN, Acting Foreign Minister Tarek Mitri, an amended text which includes Lebanon's demands," the source said.

 

[Owais]

Offensive will go on until UN resolution is passed: Israel TEL AVIV: Israel Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog said agreement by the United States and France was an "important development," but Israel would not halt its war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon until the resolution is passed.

Asked about the draft, Herzog told a local television: "It's a very important development. We have to study the details of this draft. There's a lot in there."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened his seven-minister forum in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening to discuss the continuation of the Israel Defense Forces operation in Lebanon and the draft resolution. Government officials said initial response to the proposal was favorable, but Olmert's office declined to make any official comment.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz is to meet Sunday in Jerusalem with US. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch, who comes from talks in Beirut with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri aimed at paving the way for ending hostilities.

Herzog said that a reported clause in the US-French draft calling for the unconditional release of two IDF soldiers held by Hezbollah would be a significant gain for Israel if confirmed. Until the draft is approved, he said, Israel's armed forces would continue to fight.

"The Israeli military continues to act in the meantime, without letup, in many areas," Herzog said. "We still have the coming days for many military missions, but we have to know that the timetable is becoming increasingly shorter."

Shortly after the US announced agreement with France on the draft resolution, a Hezbollah cabinet minister said militant Shiite guerrillas would not stop fighting until all IDF troops leave Lebanon. The draft resolution makes no such demand.

"We [will] abide by it on condition that no Israeli soldier remains inside Lebanese land. If they stay, we will not abide by it," said Mohammed Fneish, one of two Hezbollah members of the government.

Fneish said the Lebanese government would discuss the draft resolution Saturday.

"Israel is the aggressor. When the Israeli aggression stops, Hezbollah simply will cease fire on the condition that no Israeli soldier remains inside Lebanese land," he said.

Tareq Mitri, head of the Lebanese delegation to the UN said in an interview with the Lebanese LBC television station, "our position ... over the draft resolution is linked to its harmony with our seven points and our insistence on an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire."

"We called for a comprehensive and immediate cease-fire at the same time as the announcement of the seven points we proposed. Our seven points are clear with regard to the Shaba Farms, the detainees, the spread of the state's authority..." he said by phone from New York.

The Lebanese Cabinet went into session shortly after the U.S.-French plan was announced, but decided to withhold endorsement until it saw a final draft resolution, apparently preferring to stay united behind its own proposals for the time being.

A source in Jerusalem said the seven ministers meeting in Tel Aviv would not discuss the possible occupation of the area up to the Litani River, proposed several days ago.

A defense source added that the main problem that must be addressed at present is the firing of short-range rockets. The source said an IDF operation between the Lebanese towns of Tyre and Nabiteyeh was necessary to deal with the problem.

The seven-minister forum has served as a condensed cabinet since the start of fighting in Lebanon, and was authorized by the diplomatic-security cabinet to make decisions.

The forum includes Olmert, Peretz, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Vice Premier Shimon Peres, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, Industry and Trade Minister Eli Yishai and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz.

 

[parihaka]

Guess what!?
Lebanon rejects this resolution. they want amendment in terms and conditions of cease-fire.

Lebanon, as Israel has already demonstrated, doesn't have a say in the matter. You'll notice that while the announcements are coming out of the UN, the decisions are being made by the Americans and the French. The UN will retrospectively mandate it after it is over, just like they did in Timor Leste, Kosovo etc.

 

[Spring Onion]

Lebanon, as Israel has already demonstrated, doesn't have a say in the matter. You'll notice that while the announcements are coming out of the UN, the decisions are being made by the Americans and the French. The UN will retrospectively mandate it after it is over, just like they did in Timor Leste, Kosovo etc.

right.

UN has merely been reduced to vetos mostrly bu US to protect whatever she dose or her ally Israel.

i wonder why the US citizens who are not directly responsible for the mess created by few are hostage to few million jews.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

This ceasefire and all it words in the resolution is hot air and hogwash.

Come a few months or even years, if you wish, and the Hizb will start another war!

The world is hostage to the Hizbs.

 

[Neo]

Syria ready for regional war, blasts UN Resolution

BEIRUT (updated on: August 06, 2006, 21:42 PST): Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Sunday said Damascus was ready for regional war and condemned a draft UN resolution seeking to end the violence in Lebanon as merely a recipe for more conflict.

"If Israel attacked Syria by any means from the ground or the air, our leadership has ordered the armed forces to reply immediately," he said, after meeting with pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud.

Muallem, who was due to participate on Monday in Beirut in an Arab foreign ministers' meeting on Israel's devastating 26-day-old offensive on Lebanon, also condemned a UN draft resolution on the conflict in Lebanon.

The UN draft resolution, sponsored by the United States and France, called for a "full cessation" of fighting, but not for the immediate pullout of Israeli forces from Lebanon.

"The UN resolution is a recipe for the continuation of the (ongoing) war (between Israel and Hizbullah) ... and a recipe for civil war (in Lebanon) that nobody has interest in, but Israel," Muallem said.

"We defend Lebanon and its resistance against any plan that they try to impose on it through UN Security Council resolutions which do not reflect the Lebanese military victory over the Israeli army," he said.

"The American-French draft totally favours Israel."

Israel has said it has no plans to attack Syria but analysts have expressed fears of a wider conflict after Israel bombed Lebanese border posts close to Syria and also overflew President Bashar al-Assad's palace in northern Syria in June.

Addressing the US and Israel, Muallem said: "Anyone who thinks they can finish with Hizbullah by military means is harbouring illusions. Hizbullah will remain steadfast ... because it is defending its right and land."

Muallem said a cease-fire could only be achieved if Israel withdrew from Lebanon, including the disputed Shebaa Farms, brokered an equitable prisoners' swap and agreed to establish a buffer zone on both sides of the border.

Asked by reporters on his arrival by land in the Lebanese northern city of Tripoli about the possibility of a regional war, Muallem said: "Welcome to the regional war."

"Syria has started to prepare and we do not hide our preparations, and we will respond to any Israeli aggression immediately," he said.

"I put myself at the disposal of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and for the defence of Lebanon," he said, in reference to the head of the pro-Syrian Shiite group.

"Hizbullah put an end to the power balance favouring Israel," he said.

It was the first visit by a Syrian official of his rank to Lebanon since relations between the two neighbours soured and Damascus ended 29 years of military presence in the country in April 2005.

Muallem said his visit was meant to "open a wide door for relations of equity, respect of sovereignty and mutual respect -- away from the policy of alliances" with one party against the other in Lebanon.

"We do not want to return to Lebanon with mistakes," he said.

Syria's pullout from Lebanon came after mass protests in Lebanon against Syria's military and political domination.

Monday's Arab ministerial meeting was intended to back the seven-point plan of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, which he proposed to end hostilities which erupted after Israel launched a massive offensive on Lebanon following the capture of two soldiers by Hizbullah on July 12 to secure a prisoners' swap.

The plan calls for Israel's troop pullout from southern Lebanon, the expansion of UN peacekeeping forces in the area, the deployment of the Lebanese army to the borders and the disarming of Hizbullah guerrillas.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

Nobody will be able to disband or disarm the Hizbs.

 

[parihaka]

Syria ready for regional war, blasts UN Resolution
.

I rather suspect that there is nothing the Israelis would like more than a conventional war, so much easier to fight than COIN. Meet an army in the field, destroy it. What could be simpler.

 

[parihaka]

Muallem said his visit was meant to "open a wide door for relations of equity, respect of sovereignty and mutual respect -- away from the policy of alliances" with one party against the other in Lebanon.

"We do not want to return to Lebanon with mistakes," he said.

Syria's pullout from Lebanon came after mass protests in Lebanon against Syria's military and political domination.

Surely Syria hasn't just realised that they stand to loose all of Lebanon?

 

[KashifAsrar]

To me it looks that this conflict is going to spread to wider areas soon. The UN resolution that france and US propose to introduce, aims exactly that. That is what Condy said a few days ago: "A new middle east ". Full of blood and violence, even where there was none, till date.
The only thing to see is that how ARABS are going to be humiliated again. These stupids do not have the fraction of courage thier ancestors displayed. WHAT A SHAME !!
Apart from that it is a great lesson for those muslim countries that are on the fringe. Mere spectators !! They will soon learn the lesson that thier TURN has come. They will call loudly: "THIS IS WITHOUT NOTICE !!:crazy2: ".

They still have time to unite and put a common defence & reasearch and development in thier countries.

 

[Bull]

i wonder why the US citizens who are not directly responsible for the mess created by few are hostage to few million jews.

Are you a pakistani saying this...where a country is hostage to a man who was to be court martialled after Kargil.

Israel had the perfect right to attack and bring Lebonon to its knees after the corss border act by Hizbullah.
Hizbullah attacked and this is the way Israel retalioates,like it or not.

Next time Hizbullah shud think a hundred times, if they luv their women and children- thats the message.

 

[Owais]

Israeli attack on Qana violations of Int. Law: Annan

UNITED NATIONS: Israel's air raid on in the Lebanese town of Qana, which killed 28 people, may be part of a larger pattern of violations of international law in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report.

In that light, Annan said that the July 30 attack was sufficiently serious to merit a more comprehensive investigation.

The attack should be seen "in the broader context of what could be, based on preliminary information available to the United Nations ... a pattern of violations of international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed during the course of the current hostilities," Annan wrote.

The Security Council had asked Annan last week to report back on the circumstances of the attack, when it approved a statement expressing its "extreme shock and distress" at the bombing. It deplored the loss of civilian life in the conflict.

In the six-page report, Annan acknowledged requests from Lebanon, the League of Arab States and the Non-Aligned Movement for a full investigation.

Yet the report said the seven days Annan was given were not nearly enough for such a task, particularly because the war has made getting to Qana difficult and U.N. observers weren't there when the attack occurred.

Annan's report said the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, known by its acronym UNIFIL, could not confirm or deny Israel's contention that Hezbollah was launching attacks from Qana before the July 30 attack.