UNITED NATIONS (AP):
The United States and France agreed yesterday on a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for a "full cessation" of fighting between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, but would allow Israel to defend itself if attacked.
The draft, sent to the entire Security Council, "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."
That language is a victory for Israel, which has insisted it must have the right to respond if Hezbollah launches missiles against it. France and many other nations had demanded an immediate halt to the fighting without conditions as a way to push the region back toward stability.
Illustrating the difficulty ahead in getting the sides to agree to a ceasefire, Mohammed Fneish, a Hezbollah member of the Lebanese Cabinet, said after the announcement that his group would stop fighting, but only if Israel removed all its troops from Lebanon. The draft resolution makes no such demand.
"If they stay, we will not abide by it," he told reporters.
An Israeli Cabinet minister said his government was studying the details of the U.S.-French draft, which he called "a very important development," but added that Israel would not halt its war against Hezbollah for the time being.
many military missions
"We still have the coming days for many military missions, but we have to know that the timetable is becoming increasingly shorter," Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog told Israel TV's Channel One. "... We need to internalise this, and act accordingly."
Israel has said it wants to continue fighting for up to two weeks to seriously diminish Hezbollah's military capability.
It was not immediately clear whether Herzog was speaking for the government. Officials in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said no formal reaction was expected Saturday.
agreement reached
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton and French President Jacques Chirac's office confirmed that agreement on a draft text had been reached. The full 15-nation Security Council was to meet later yesterday to discuss the resolution, and it was likely to be adopted in the next couple of days, Bolton said.
"We're prepared to continue to work tomorrow in order to make progress on the adoption of the resolution but we have reached agreement and we're now ready to proceed," Bolton said. "We're prepared to move as quickly as other members of the council want to move."
The resolution asks that Israel and Lebanon agree to a set of principles to achieve a long-term peace. One crucial element is an arms embargo that would block any entity in Lebanon except the Lebanese government from obtaining weapons from abroad.
That is presumably meant to block the sale or supply of arms to Hezbollah from Iran and Syria, believed to be the militia's main suppliers.
Other principles spelled out in the resolution include the disarmament of Hezbollah; the creation of a buffer zone from the U.N.-demarcated border between Israel and Lebanon up to the Litani River, which is about 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of the frontier; and the delineation of Lebanon's borders, especially in the disputed Chebaa Farms area.
