Israel to delay wider ground offensive

The Israeli military will hold off a wider ground offensive in south Lebanon by three days to allow for the UN Security Council to continue its debate for a ceasefire resolution, according to one of the ministers attending a meeting this afternoon.

Israel’s security cabinet approved a wider ground offensive in south Lebanon that was expected to take 30 days as part of a new push to badly damage Hezbollah, said Israeli cabinet minister Eli Yishai earlier today.

The decision to expand the offensive was made with nine ministers in favour and three abstaining.

The security cabinet authorised troops to push to the Litani River some 18 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border.

Currently some 10,000 soldiers are fighting Hezbollah in a four-mile stretch from the Israel-Lebanon border.

During the meeting, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and the two spoke for half an hour, a cabinet minister said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to reveal the contents of the call.

When Olmert returned to the meeting, he announced that a new diplomatic process would begin simultaneous to the military operation and that a new UN Security Council resolution to end the fighting would be drafted to try to address Lebanon’s concerns, the minister said.

Israeli officials assessed that they would have sufficient time to complete their operation and rid south Lebanon of Hezbollah bunkers before a ceasefire is declared.

Yishai said the proposed operation was expected to take 30 days. However, an internationally backed ceasefire was expected to be imposed well before then.

“The assessment is it will last 30 days. I think it is wrong to make this assessment. I think it will take a lot longer,” he said.

The decision gave authorisation to defence minister Amir Peretz and Olmert to order the wider offensive and to decide its timing. However, it did not obligate them to act.