Lebanon urges U.N. on Israeli withdrawal/ Hezbollah rockets pound Haifa

By Hum Bahadur K.C.

-A heavy barrage of Hezbollah rockets hit the port city of Haifa, Israel, Sunday evening, killing three people and wounding about 100 people, police and ambulance services said. Earlier in the day, 12 soldiers were killed when a Hezbollah rocket hit a building in northern Israel. The Hezbollah barrage came after Israeli airstrikes left at least eight civilians dead in Lebanon)

6August2006-Lebanon urged the U.N. Security Council Sunday to revise

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a resolution aimed at ending the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting to demand that Israel pull its forces out of the country once hostilities end and hand over its positions to U.N. peacekeepers.34   ।  

The draft resolution circulated Saturday by the United States and France made no mention of an Israeli withdrawal. It calls for "a full cessation of hostilities" based on "the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations."

Lebanon’s proposal was one of many suggested amendments to the draft resolution. Security Council experts went over the draft for several hours Sunday and diplomats said there was a widespread feeling that it did not sufficiently take Lebanon’s concerns into account.

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Qatar, the only Arab member of the council, introduced a host of amendments including Lebanon’s call for an Israeli withdrawal and other council members proposed changes as well, the diplomats said.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton and French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere met Sunday afternoon to consider the proposed amendments. Later, they met with ambassadors of the three other veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council — Russia, China and Britain.

Under the proposal put forward by Lebanese special envoy Nouhad Mahoud, Israel would immediately hand over the ground it held when fighting ended to U.N. peacekeepers. Within 72 hours, the peacekeepers would assist the Lebanese armed forces to deploy throughout southern Lebanon, which is now controlled by Hezbollah, to the U.N.-drawn boundary with Israel known as the Blue Line.

Hezbollah warned Saturday that it will not abide by the resolution unless Israel withdraws from Lebanon entirely and indicated the lack of a timetable for such a withdrawal was perhaps the biggest sticking point with the text.

Lebanon also urged the council to amend the text to call for the immediate withdrawal of Israel from the disputed Chebaa Farms area and hand it over "to U.N. custody, pending delineation of the border in this area between Lebanon and Syria."

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Israel seized the Chebaa Farms area in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and still occupies it. Lebanon claims the area but the United Nations determined that it is Syrian, and that Syria and Israel should negotiate its fate.

Hezbollah uses the Chebaa Farms to claim that Israeli forces still occupy Lebanon.

"The thing to be done is to ask the Israelis to leave with the cessation of hostilities," said the Arab League’s envoy to the U.N., Yahya Mahmassani. "The presence of Israeli troops on Lebanese soil … is considered an occupation."

Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Sunday the U.S.-French draft was good for Israel but the country still had military goals and would continue attacks on Hezbollah. He expressed doubt that Hezbollah would honor the resolution and stop firing.

"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 position, diplomatically and militarily, will improve."

The U.S.-French draft spells out the elements for a lasting peace between Lebanon and Israel, with a cease-fire monitored by international troops. If passed, it would be the first international response to the crisis and raise hope of ending 3 1/2 weeks of combat that have killed at least 600 and left Lebanon in tatters.

The draft calls for marking the border in the Chebaa Farms area, establishing a buffer zone between the Litani River and the Blue Line where only Lebanese and international forces would be allowed, disarming all militias, and extending Lebanese government authority throughout the country.

It also calls for an international embargo on the sale of arms to Lebanon "except as authorized by its government."

Once Israel and Lebanon have agreed in principle to these elements, the council will adopt another resolution under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter authorizing deployment of a U.N.-mandated international force to help implement a permanent cease-fire and a long-term solution to the crisis, according to the draft.

Council diplomats who attended the experts meeting on Sunday said China objected to the reference to Chapter 7 — which deals with actions including military force to respond to threats to international peace. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.

The diplomats said there was wide agreement that the U.S.-French draft was not balanced, and that more needed to be included to address a seven-point plan put forward by Lebanon.

That plan includes an immediate and comprehensive cease-fire based on Israel’s withdrawal behind the Blue Line, undertakings to release Lebanese and Israeli prisoners and put Chebaa Farms under U.N. jurisdiction, extending Lebanese government authority throughout the territory, beefing up the U.N. international force in southern Lebanon and providing international help to rebuild Lebanon.