Key powers agree on Lebanon resolution
UNITED NATIONS (August 12 2006): Key UN Security Council members have agreed on a resolution to end Israel's month-old war with Hizbollah and a vote was possible later on Friday, British foreign secretary Margaret Beckett said.
But Israeli officials said they were still gearing up for an expansion of the army's ground offensive in Lebanon, although it could be halted at any time if a resolution was passed.
There was no let-up in violence. Israeli attacks killed at least 22 people in Lebanon on Friday, including three killed when a drone fired rockets at a convoy of cars fleeing the south. An Israeli soldier was reported killed in fighting and Hizbollah rockets wounded seven people in northern Israel.
An Israeli political source said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was reviewing the draft resolution and Israel's Channel 10 television said the text had been "positively received".
The revised US-French Security Council draft resolution authorises up to 15,000 UN troops to monitor a withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from southern Lebanon and help the Lebanese army enforce a truce.
The draft, obtained by Reuters, calls for a "full cessation of hostilities" and tells the Hizbollah militia to stop all attacks immediately and for Israel to end "all offensive operations".
After fighting stops, Israel is to withdraw all its forces from southern Lebanon at the earliest. Lebanon is to deploy its armed forces throughout southern Lebanon, which Hizbollah controls, as the Israeli army pulls out.
The timing of Israel's withdrawal and the nature of the international force sent into the area had been the main points of contention that held up a deal this week.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to New York in anticipation of a vote on ending the war, in which at least 1,033 people in Lebanon and 123 Israelis have been killed. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy was en route to the United Nations.
Rice phoned Olmert and Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to try to get them to accept the text, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Beckett said the sponsors of the resolution would push for a vote regardless of their response.
But she cautioned that the resolution was only a short-term settlement. "We're not here trying to solve all the problems of the Middle East overnight," she said. A senior Lebanese political source said Lebanese leaders had no further major objections to the proposed deal.
At the insistence of Lebanon, the United States and Britain agreed to drop a reference to Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which permits a robust UN peacekeeping operation.
But Britain's UN ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said the text would carry strong rules of engagement anyway for the expanded force that France is expected to lead. A second resolution on a permanent ceasefire would follow within a month, tackling a range of issues including the release of two Israeli soldiers held by Hizbollah.
Israeli raids on a bridge near the border with Syria killed 12 people and wounded 18, hospital staff said. Witnesses said a second strike hit the bridge 15 minutes after the first had brought rescuers rushing to the scene.
Witnesses and rescue workers said at least three people were killed and eight wounded when an Israeli drone fired rockets at a convoy of hundreds of vehicles that had left the town of Marjayoun, seized by Israel on Thursday. Around 3,000 civilians and 350 Lebanese security men were in the convoy.
The Israeli military said it was checking the report.
Israeli strikes killed two people in the eastern Bekaa Valley and five in south Lebanon, security sources said.
An Israeli soldier was killed and one was badly wounded in fighting with Hizbollah guerrillas, Al Arabiya television reported. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.
More bombs hit Beirut's battered Shia Muslim suburbs, hours after dawn raids on the capital. Many people fled the suburbs on Thursday after Israel dropped warning leaflets.
Hizbollah fired more than 55 rockets into Israel, wounding seven people, police and ambulance staff said. Humanitarian agencies sought ways to get aid to an estimated 100,000 people trapped in southern Lebanon and the mayor of Tyre said the city could run out of food in two days. Aid convoys have been unable to deliver supplies since an Israeli air strike hit a bridge on the Litani River on Monday.
