New U.N. Mideast Resolution Expected
A draft resolution seeking a halt to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah would only make the crisis worse because it does not demand the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon, Qatar's foreign minister told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.
Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani, part of an Arab delegation appearing before the council, said the U.S.-French draft would be impossible to enforce in its current form. He said it must call for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanese territory and the strengthening of U.N. peacekeepers already deployed in the border region.
"We draw the attention of our august council to the repercussions of adopting a non-enforceable resolution that would further complicate the situation on the ground and have grave ramifications for Lebanon, Arab countries and all the countries of the region," Al Thani said.
Al Thani's delegation, which also included the chief of the Arab League and the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, had arrived in New York just before the council session bearing Lebanon's objections to the resolution. They hoped to persuade the council to include several of Lebanon's demands in the final resolution.
They argue that the draft must support a seven-point plan adopted by the Lebanese Cabinet, which includes two Hezbollah ministers.
The Lebanese plan includes an immediate and comprehensive cease-fire based on Israel's withdrawal behind the U.N.-drawn boundary with Lebanon known as the Blue Line, commitments to release Lebanese and Israeli prisoners and put the disputed Chebaa Farms area on the Lebanon-Syria-Israeli border under U.N. jurisdiction, extending Lebanese government authority throughout the country, beefing up the U.N. international force in southern Lebanon, and providing international help to rebuild Lebanon.
"We are all here to find a way out," said Tarek Mitri, sent to the U.N. as a special envoy by Lebanon's Cabinet. "The proposal of our government ... should be looked at as a viable option. It allows the true effective cessation of hostilities; it leads to a durable ceasefire."
"If the Arab League presentation to the Security Council was intended to lay the basis for a revised Resolution that satisfies Lebanon," says CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk from the U.N., "it was not evident from the acrimony at the meeting.
"Pointing the finger at the U.N. for allowing a bloodbath in Lebanon, the Foreign Minister of Qatar called for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, the Lebanese Envoy called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops, and the Israeli Ambassador said he saw no purpose to the meeting," Falk says.
"Despite the tension, all signs pointed to the fact that there will be a compromise proposal forged in the next day or two that calls for a ceasefire, accepts the Lebanese offer of 15,000 troops to patrol the border, lays the groundwork for an international force, and includes an Israeli withdrawal of troops, timed to a period when Israel can feel secure," Falk said. "There is not as much difference between the parties as it might seem from the finger pointing at the Security Council meeting, and members of the Council leaving the meeting expressed some limited optimism that a resolution will be passed later this week."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the Lebanese proposal "an interesting step" — which his government would examine — in his words — "to see to what degree it is practical and in what time frame," reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey.
Pizzey adds that Israel is looking beyond just ending the current round of bloodshed. As far as the Israelis are concerned, Lebanon is only part of the problem. Any peace deal must be linked to long-term regional security issues.
In other developments:
The cease-fire negotiations come as fighting continued. In Israel, the government is offering to help some 17,000 Israelis to leave border towns for several days, reports CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan. But in Lebanon, some residents told Cowan they don't think anywhere in the country is safe. "There's nowhere to go to now, you know?" said Mohamed Ramadan. "It's everywhere — you can't know when they are going to bomb anywhere in Lebanon."
After weeks of negotiation, the United States and France circulated the draft on Saturday that called for a "full cessation of hostilities" — in particular that Hezbollah stop all attacks, and that Israel end all offensive operations.
That distinction drew criticism from Lebanon, which called it a recipe for continuing violence. The Lebanese also protested that the resolution mentioned nothing about a timetable for Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon, which Hezbollah controlled. Thousands of Israeli troops have moved into the area since the fighting began.
Washington and Paris could introduce a new draft later Tuesday or on Wednesday. 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.
Israel's U.N. Ambassador, Dan Gillerman, said any resolution must not create a void in south Lebanon that Hezbollah could fill. He also sought a robust international force to back Lebanese troops in the area.
"We want a cease-fire, but a cease-fire that sows the seeds of future peace, not a future conflict," Gillerman told the council.
He later told reporters that Israel would withdraw from Lebanon "the minute there is a political solution and the minute there is a viable force in place."
That presents a tricky problem for the Security Council. On the one hand, Lebanon wants the U.N. force now in Lebanon to be strengthened, while Gillerman was clear that the existing U.N. force will not suffice because it has proven after 28 years in the region to be ineffective.
In his speech, Al Thani criticized the Security Council for having taken little substantive action thus far in response to the war, which began when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12 and has left hundreds of people dead.
"It is most saddening that this council stands idly by, crippled, unable to stop the bloodbath which has become the bitter daily lot of the defenseless Lebanese people," Al Thani said.
As part of efforts to accommodate Lebanon, the United States and France are considering several proposals, including that the resolution should support Lebanon's offer Monday to deploy 15,000 Lebanese troops to monitor a buffer zone in the south.
Another proposal, still in the early stages, is to deploy an international force to Chebaa Farms, which Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and still occupies, diplomats said. Lebanon had made that demand previously and was upset when the original draft resolution did not reflect it.
The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the talks.