[Washington Post] Colum Lynch and Robin Wright - Lebanon on Thursday raised objections to a U.S.- and French-backed draft resolution aimed at ending the fighting between Hizballah and Israel because it does not call for an immediate cease-fire and because the proposed new international force would have a broad mandate to use military firepower. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora expressed concerns to Secretary General Kofi Annan about whether he could persuade Hizballah to accept the draft resolution. The threat of Israeli ground action heightened the sense of urgency in concluding weeks of contentious negotiations over a plan to end the violence. A breakthrough in negotiations with France came after the U.S. dropped its demand that Israeli troops be allowed to remain in southern Lebanon until a muscular international force is in place with a tough mandate to ensure that Hizballah could not mount attacks on Israeli towns. Washington also agreed to scrap a provision that the force be explicitly authorized to disarm Hizballah. The U.S. and France agreed to expand UNIFIL, the existing UN peacekeeping force, with 2,000 more soldiers and to authorize it to use force to help Beirut restore its control over southern Lebanon.
2006-08-11 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive