 UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Israel has made "significant progress" in the gradual withdrawal of its forces from south Lebanon in the month since the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution to end the conflict there, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday in a report.
| And they're the only ones who have. |
The report said both Israel and the Islamic militant group Hezbollah had mostly complied with the cease-fire that was called for in that resolution, aside from one major raid by Israel on Aug. 19 and several minor violations.
"What's in the trucks, Nasrallah?"
"Supplies. Humanitarian supplies."
"Humanitarian supplies? Those fins look pretty sharp."
"Yeah, you could get hurt. Now go away." |
The U.N. Security Council had asked Annan to report back periodically on the implementation of the resolution, which paved the way for the cease-fire that took effect on Aug. 14. He said Israel has withdrawn from about two-thirds of the area it occupied in south Lebanon, and has promised to leave entirely by the time Lebanon deploys 15,000 troops and the U.N. sends 5,000 peacekeepers there.
| I thought the 'peacekeepers' were supposed to arrive first, then the Lebs, and finally the Israelis would leave. Silly me. |
Annan, who recently returned from an 11-day trip to the region, said the process would be finished in the coming weeks. He did not say how many Israeli troops remained in south Lebanon. "On the ground, significant progress continues to be made as regards the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces and the deployment of the LAF (Lebanese Armed Forces)," Annan wrote in the report. |