Lebanon Rejects Draft UN Truce Resolution.

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/746632.html

Parliament speaker: Lebanon rejects draft UN truce resolution

By Aluf Benn and Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies

Lebanon rejects a United Nations Security Council draft resolution to end the fighting, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Sunday, as it would allow the Israel Defense Forces to remain on Lebanese soil.

The draft text for a UN Security Council resolution on ending the crisis in Lebanon, was agreed Saturday by the United States and France.

Government sources in Israel had welcomed the American-French draft, despite the fact that Israel has backed down on its demands regarding the issue of international peacekeepers.

Israel has agreed to the draft's provision that the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) force currently deployed in south Lebanon be replaced by an international force only after Israel and Lebanon reach agreement on the principles of a long-term accord.

The government sources noted that the draft accepts Israel's basic demand, that the IDF remain in its positions in south Lebanon and prevent Hezbollah men from returning to the area, until the international force is deployed.

Berri, who has acted as a negotiator for Hezbollah, said the resolution had ignored a seven-point plan presented by the government that calls for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the return of all displaced civilians among other things.

"Lebanon and all of Lebanon rejects any resolution that is outside these seven points," Berri told a news conference.

A vote on the resolution is expected on Monday or Tuesday.

Israel had previously opposed UNIFIL supervising a cease-fire. Israel has frequently charged that UNIFIL personnel turned a blind eye to Hezbollah operations in the south.

Under the draft resolution, UNIFIL would be reinforced with more troops in order to be able to carry out its new mandate. Initially Israel opposed the expansion of UNIFIL's role and asked that it be replaced, arguing that to date its performance was poor and its troops did not prevent terrorist attacks.

The draft U.S.-French resolution calls for a "full cessation of hostilities based upon... the immediate cessation by Hizbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations". It implicitly gives Israel the right to pursue "defensive" military operations.

Ramon: Draft is good, but we'll press the fight
Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Sunday that despite the agreement on the draft UN resolution Israel will continue to attack Hezbollah militants.

Ramon said on Army Radio that the draft resolution was good for Israel, but the country still had military goals to meet.

"Even if it is passed, it is doubtful that Hezbollah will honor the resolution and halt its fire," Ramon said.

"Therefore we have to continue fighting, continue hitting anyone we can hit in Hezbollah, and I assume that as long as that goes on, Israel's standing, diplomatically and militarily, will improve."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said last week that Israel "will not accept a force of the UNIFIL type, that was proven not to be effective. The force that will be deployed will have to comprise of armies, not pensioners who come to vacation in southern Lebanon, but real soldiers capable of fighting."

Political sources in Jerusalem said Saturday night that Israel received assurances through diplomatic channels that UNIFIL will be bolstered by quality troops from France. The current commander of UNIFIL is a French General, Alain Pelegrini. Currently, UNIFIL has 2,000 men from France, China, Ghana, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Ukraine.

Political sources in Israel said the deployment of a multinational force in a country requires agreements, and the government of Lebanon announced that following the Qana incident last week that it would refuse a new force.

Broadening the UNIFIL mandate is essentially meant to deal with the Lebanese opposition to a new force at this time.

The Lebanese government said it objected to portions of the U.S-French draft resolution and would demand that some provisions be amended.

"The government has objected to the U.S.-French draft resolution. It has made amendments to some of the provisions and has sent them to Lebanon's UN representative," an aide to Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said late Saturday.

"We would have liked to see our concerns more reflected in the text," Lebanese Foreign Ministry official Nouhad Mahmoud said at the UN.

"Unfortunately, it lacked, for instance, a call for the withdrawal of Israeli forces which are now in Lebanon. That is a recipe for more confrontation," he said.

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This is another report on the same story

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/06082006/32...esolution.html

Lebanon rejects draft U.N. resolution Sunday August 6, 01:46 PM

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon rejects a draft U.N. Security Council resolution to end 26 days of fighting because it would allow Israeli forces to remain on Lebanese soil, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said on Sunday.

Slamming the French-U.S. draft as biased, Berri said it ignored a seven-point plan presented by Lebanon that calls for an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the
return of all displaced civilians among other things.

"Lebanon, and all of Lebanon, rejects any resolution that is outside these seven points," said Berri, who has been negotiating on behalf of Hizbollah guerrillas.

"Their resolution will either drop Lebanon into internal strife or will be impossible to implement," he told a news conference.

The draft resolution, which the Security Council is expected to vote on either Monday or Tuesday, calls for a "full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hizbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations".

A senior Israeli government official said the Jewish state views the draft favourably, because it allows Israel to respond to Hizbollah attacks once a truce takes effect and did not order Israel to withdraw its 10,000 soldiers from southern Lebanon.

Israel wants its troops to remain until an international force mandated by the United Nations can take over.

Berri said that there could be no peace while Israeli soldiers remained on Lebanese soil.

"What was agreed is not in Lebanon's interests but against them. This will open the door to never-ending war," he said.

"There will be operations against this army that is not on its own soil, that is occupying here. The result is the Israelis will bomb again so we will reach neither a next stage nor the deployment of the (Lebanese) army nor UNIFIL nor international forces."

Berri also said the wording of the resolution was loaded against Lebanon.

He complained that an international force that would be established by a second U.N. resolution, following an initial resolution establishing a truce, would come under Chapter Seven of the U.N. charter, which authorises the use of force, but would not necessarily be answerable to the world body.

France is seen as the potential leader of such a force.

Berri said the resolution would put Lebanon back in the same position it was in before May 2000, when Israeli troops occupied a broad swathe of southern Lebanon for 22 years.

Israel withdrew from the area amid constant attack by Hizbollah guerrillas.

Hizbollah leaders have sworn to fight as long as Israeli soldiers remain on Lebanese soil. Israeli troops are trying to drive Hizbollah back from the border area, from where the group has fired barrages of rockets into the Jewish state.