Lebanon has been unable for nearly two years to implement a U.N. resolution
calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah.
The U.N. resolution 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."
But it makes no explicit mention of an Israeli withdrawal, and implicitly
allows Israeli defensive operations. Instead, it calls in the longer-term for a
buffer zone in southern Lebanon, which Hezbollah controls and where Israeli
troops are now fighting. Only Lebanese armed forces and U.N.-mandated
international troops would be allowed in the zone.
France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, promised Monday to take
into account Lebanon's concerns that the resolution does not seek the withdrawal
of Israeli troops. But he did not say whether France was prepared to add such
language to the text.
Washington and Paris were expected to circulate a new draft later Monday, in
response to amendments proposed by Qatar, the only Arab nation on the Security
Council, and other members, diplomats said.
The proposed changes include a call for Israeli forces to pull out of Lebanon
once the fighting stops and hand over their positions to U.N. peacekeepers. Arab
states also want the U.N. to take control of the disputed Chebaa Farms area,
which Israel seized in 1967.
"We need today pressure on the international community for a Security Council
resolution that imposes a comprehensive and permanent cease-fire that provides
simultaneously for a complete Israeli withdrawal," Saniora said at the hastily
arranged Arab League gathering in Beirut.
The Arab foreign ministers announced they would send a delegation to the U.N.
to represent Lebanon's interests at a meeting with the Security Council on
Tuesday. The timing of the meeting means the council probably would not adopt a
resolution until Wednesday at the earliest.
Saniora said Lebanon was "stunned" by the devastation of the Israeli
offensive, which had taken "our country back decades. We are still in the middle
of the shock."
Israel, reeling from 15 deaths in Hezbollah rocket strikes a day earlier,
fought back with particular ferocity Monday.
A sunset airstrike on a south Beirut suburb killed at least 10 people in the
predominantly Shiite district of Chiah. At least eight strikes rattled the
capital in the one-hour period before dawn.
To the east, Israeli warplanes staged bombing runs on suspected Hezbollah
positions in the Bekaa Valley, killing at least eight people and wounding 32,
witnesses and civil defense officials said.
In the south, Israeli commandos helicoptered down to a hill overlooking Ras
al-Biyada at mid-afternoon, fighting Hezbollah in close combat in a bid to
destroy rocket launchers. About 30 commandos battled the guerrillas, but there
was no word on casualties, a Lebanese official said on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Almost all the ground battles have taken place south of the Litani River,
some 18 miles north of the Israel-Lebanon border. The Israeli army said it
declared an indefinite curfew beginning Monday night on the movement of vehicles
south of the Litani. Humanitarian traffic would be allowed, but other vehicles
would be at risk if they ignored the order, the army said.
The Israelis want to destroy the guerrillas' rocket launchers, but Hezbollah
has other weapons in its arsenal.
The Israeli air force shot down a Hezbollah drone for the first time Monday,
sending its wreckage plunging into the sea, the army said. Israeli media
reported that the unmanned aircraft had the capacity to carry 90 pounds of
explosives, nearly as much as the more powerful rockets Hezbollah has been
firing into Israel. Unlike the rockets, the drone has a guidance system to for
accurate targeting.
