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U.S. Ambassador John Bolton says the US believes Lebanon's decision to deploy the army in the south "is significant." (AP file)
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| By Associated Press August 10, 2006 |
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Diplomatic efforts to reach quick agreement on a U.N. resolution to try to end the escalating Israeli-Hezbollah conflict have faltered over differences between the United States and France on Arab demands for an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
As Israel approved a broader and bigger ground offensive in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, France was backing Lebanon's call for Israeli troops to pull out once hostilities end and when Lebanon deploys 15,000 troops of its own. The United States was supporting Israel's insistence on staying until a robust international force is deployed.
The dispute between the co-sponsors of the draft resolution sparked a flurry of meetings Wednesday and raised the possibility of rival U.S. and French resolutions -- or no resolution at all for the time being.
In negotiations with Britain, China, the U.S. and Russia on Wednesday evening, France presented the latest language in the draft resolution, a U.N. Security Council diplomat said. One key amendment "calls upon the governemnt of Lebanon, upon cessation of hostilities, to start deploying its armed forces throughout the south as the Israeli army starts withdrawing behind the Blue Line in coordination with UNIFIL," the U.N. peacekeeping force now in the region. The Blue Line is the U.N.-drawn boundary between Lebanon and Israel.
The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were secret.
The U.S. response to that idea was not immediately clear, though U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said differences remained. U.S. officials had previously said the main issues were matters of sequencing -- which steps should happen first.
"We're all still operating in very good faith and trying to resolve some difficult issues that we've known for some time," Bolton said. "But my sense is that we're getting closer in a way to resolving some of them. But I don't want to underestimate the conceptual and operational differences that we're trying to overcome."
French President Jacques Chirac said the draft resolution should be revised to take into account Lebanese and Arab demands for changes. He appealed to the U.S. at a news conference in Toulon to speed up its response to these demands, and warned that giving up the push for an immediate end to the fighting would be the "most immoral" response.
Chirac said that if France and the United States don't reach agreement, "we will have a debate in the Security Council and each will affirm clearly its position, naturally including France, through its own resolution."
The U.S.-French draft circulated Saturday calls for "a full cessation of hostilities," with Hezbollah immediately stopping all attacks and Israel ending offensive military operations. But Israel would still be allowed to take defensive action and there is no call for the withdrawal of its troops from southern Lebanon, which is Hezbollah's stronghold.
Lebanon opposed the draft, saying it favored Israel too strongly. The Lebanese government demanded that the cessation of hostilities must be complete -- including all Israeli military activity -- and said all Israeli troops must leave. It warned that their presence would be viewed as a new occupation and citing Hezbollah's threat to shoot at any Israeli soldiers in the country.
On Monday, Lebanon offered to deploy 15,000 troops in south Lebanon. France wants a revised resolution to build on the Lebanese announcement, which would fulfill a demand in a September 2004 Security Council resolution that the government extend its authority throughout southern Lebanon.
Paris believes that before the deployment of an international force -- which it may lead -- there should be an intermediate step to reinforce the 2,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are closed.
Bolton said the United States believes Lebanon's decision to deploy the army in the south "is significant and we are going to take account of that in the resolution."
"The strategic issue, however, remains the same as it has been from near the outset of this, which is that everybody wants to see this used to transform the situation in the region _ which means fundamentally that we don't want Hezbollah to re-infiltrate the southern part of Lebanon," he said.
U.S. officials said a cease-fire deal could accommodate both Arab demands for an immediate Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon and U.S. and Israeli demands that no security vacuum be left for Hezbollah to fill.
Other members of the Security Council appeared increasingly impatient with the lack of a resolution so far.
"Unfortunately there are quite a few very complicated ideas about how those principles, the basic elements, should be implemented," Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said. "I've really been encouraging people to go to the bottom line and to focus on the things which need to be done immediately -- to stop the fighting and to put in (place) a political process.
"There are still some differences that we must quickly overcome," France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said after the Wednesday evening meeting.
As a practical matter, Israeli forces would need several days or longer to leave, and the departure would be coordinated with deployment of a replacement force that is acceptable to the Lebanese, U.S. officials said.
The composition and mandate of the replacement force is a sticking point, but U.S. officials said it could be a combination of Lebanese and foreign forces, perhaps under the banner of the U.N. force.
Bolton said this raises a number of issues that are the current focus of debate, including how to ensure an effective security presence in southern Lebanon as Israeli forces withdraw; how to put a security operation together; and how an operation would become part of the effort to fulfill the U.N. resolution demanding the disarmament of all militias and the extension of Lebanese government authority throughout the country.
Lebanon also wants the resolution to include a commitment to release Lebanese and Israeli prisoners and an agreement to put the disputed Chebaa Farms area on the Lebanon-Syria-Israel border under U.N. jurisdiction.
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