Arab delegation to present Lebanon's case before UN

Three leading Arab officials were to appear before the UN Security Council this evening to demand that a draft resolution on ending the war between Israel and Hezbollah seek Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon once fighting ends.

The delegation’s request to appear before the Security Council has delayed action on a Security Council resolution.

Lebanon, backed by Arab foreign ministers, say the US-French resolution favours Israel and does not “take Lebanon’s interest and stability into account.”

The council was expected to hear arguments from all three members of the delegation: the foreign ministers of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. Representatives of Israel and Lebanon will also speak.

Washington and Paris had been expected to circulate a new draft of the resolution yesterday but decided to wait to hear from the Arab delegation.

The council planned to hold closed consultations after hearing from the delegation, and could introduce a new draft late in the day or tomorrow.

Because of Security Council rules, 24 hours must pass before a resolution can be voted on. That means any vote probably will not occur until Thursday at the earliest.

Tarek Mitri, sent to the UN as a special envoy by Lebanon’s Council of Ministers, criticised the resolution’s failure to demand an Israeli pullout and its call for Israel to halt only offensive military operations, which he called “a recipe for the continuation of violence.”

Hezbollah has said it will reject any halt in fighting that leaves Israeli troops in Lebanon, and Israel has insisted it will not withdraw until it is guaranteed Hezbollah rocket fire will stop.

“If they think by just adopting willy nilly a text like this one they would have done good, we would like to tell them that this is not so,” Mitri said in an interview.

“I want a text that will bring about cessation of hostilities,” he said. “We don’t want a piece of paper that calls for cessation of hostilities while hostilities are exacerbated, aggravated, continue unabated.”

France’s UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere insisted the draft “is a good one” because it addresses the cessation of hostilities and sets out principles for a long-term solution.

“We have to take into account the concerns of all, and this is what we wish to do,” de La Sabliere.

De La Sabliere noted that it was the Arab League that just a little over two weeks ago asked the Security Council to act. He wants to hear from their representatives, he said.

“We’re still working on things,” US Ambassador John Bolton said. “Obviously we want to hear from the Arab League ... and then we’ll decide where to go from there. ... We’ve said from the get-go that we want this to be in the context of a sustainable long-term solution. That’s still what we’re trying to work out.”

Israel launched the offensive on July 12 after the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah fighters and against the backdrop of continuing Hezbollah rocket attacks from southern Lebanon into Israel.

On Monday, the government announced that the Cabinet unanimously approved sending 15,000 soldiers to south Lebanon as soon as Israeli troops withdraw. The Lebanese military asked for thousands of reservists to begin reporting Thursday.

Bolton said the United States thought the Cabinet statement “was very positive about the deployment of Lebanese armed forces in the south.”

“We’re still talking about possible changes we can make based on developments in Lebanon today” including the Cabinet statement, “and trying to explore how we can accelerate the implementation” of the Security Council resolution adopted in September 2004 calling for the extension of Lebanese authority throughout the country and the disarmament of all militias, he said.