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U.N. Mideast Draft Meets Arab Opposition
The United States and France ran into strong opposition from Lebanon and the Arab world Sunday in their drive for speedy adoption of a U.N. resolution aimed at ending the escalating Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, primarily over the withdrawal of Israeli troops. Washington and Paris had hoped to put the draft in final form for a Security Council vote Monday. But they delayed action after Lebanon and Qatar, the council's only Arab member, proposed many amendments to the U.S.-French draft resolution —first and foremost demanding Israel pull its forces out of Lebanon once hostilities end.The council was scheduled to meet Monday morning when the U.S. and France are likely to present a revised text, taking into account some of the Arab concerns, with a view to a possible Security Council vote on Tuesday, council diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations have been closed. "The most important thing for us is to obtain the agreement of the Lebanese government (and) the Arab world," France's Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on France-Info radio. Lebanese special envoy Nouhad Mahoud proposed an amendment to the U.S.-French draft that would have Israel would immediately hand over the ground it held when fighting ended to U.N. peacekeepers. Within 72 hours, the peacekeepers would assist the Lebanese armed forces to deploy throughout southern Lebanon to the U.N.-drawn boundary with Israel known as the Blue Line. Mahoud also urged the council to amend the text to call for Israel to immediately hand over the Chebaa Farms area, which it seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, "to U.N. custody" until the border is marked. Lebanon claims the area but the United Nations determined that it is Syrian, and that Syria and Israel should negotiate its fate. Hezbollah uses the Chebaa Farms to claim that Israeli forces still occupy Lebanon. Posted by: Fred 2006-08-07 |
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