UNITED NATIONS – The U.S. and France agreed Saturday on a draft Security Council resolution that seeks a full halt to fighting in Lebanon, breaking a three-week impasse caused partly by Washington’s refusal to press Israel to end its offensive against Hezbollah.
Despite the agreement, fighting raged on. Israeli naval commandos struck the southern port of Tyre before dawn, while Israeli air raids killed at least eight people across Lebanon and a rain of Hezbollah rockets on northern Israel killed three civilians.
The resolution would chart a path toward a lasting peace with a cease-fire monitored by international troops. If passed, it would be the most significant international response to the crisis and raise hopes of ending combat that has killed at least 600 and left Lebanon in tatters.
The resolution must now go before the full 15-nation Security Council and gain Israeli and Lebanese acceptance – and initial reaction from both sides indicated that would not be easy.
Hezbollah warned it will not abide by the resolution unless Israel withdraws from Lebanon entirely and indicated the lack of a timetable for such a withdrawal was perhaps the biggest sticking point with the text.
“We will abide by it on condition that no Israeli soldier remains inside Lebanese land. If they stay, we will not abide by it,” said Mohammed Fneish, one of two Hezbollah Cabinet ministers in the Lebanese government.
In Israel, Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog said the agreement was an “important development,” but Israel would not halt its assault on Hezbollah for the time being. Still, he appeared to acknowledge the draft meant Israel’s offensive would have to wind down soon.
“We still have the coming days for many military missions, but we have to know that the timetable is becoming increasingly shorter,” he said.
Israel says it won’t pull its troops out of the south until a significant international military force deploys in the region.
The text also ignored three Lebanese demands: setting a timetable for an Israeli withdrawal from the south, lifting Israel’s full blockade of Lebanon and putting the disputed Chebaa Farms area under U.N. control.
“We would have liked to see our concerns more reflected in the text,” Lebanese special envoy Nouhad Mahoud said. “Unfortunately it lacks for instance a call for withdrawal of Israeli forces which are now in Lebanon and that’s a recipe for more confrontation, we don’t like to see that.”
President Bush is “happy with the progress being made” at the United Nations, but knows cementing a cease-fire will not be easy, White House press secretary Tony Snow said.
“I don’t think he has any delusions about what lies ahead,” said Snow, who was with the president on his vacation at his private ranch in Crawford, Texas.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair praised the resolution as “an important first step in bringing this tragic crisis to an end.”
“The priority now is to get the resolution adopted as soon as possible, and then to work for a permanent cease-fire and achieve the conditions in Lebanon and Israel which will prevent a recurrence,” Blair said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called for an immediate cease-fire and political settlement in Lebanon, and stressed the Security Council must show “its responsibility by passing as quickly as possible a resolution aimed at achieving those goals,” the Kremlin said.
The Security Council convened later Saturday to discuss the draft. Diplomats said it was likely to be adopted early next week at a meeting attended by the foreign ministers of the 15 council members.
The resolution’s central demand was for “a full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations.”
The document then charted a detailed path for the two sides to follow to achieve a lasting peace. It envisioned a second resolution in a week or two that would authorize an international military force for the Israel-Lebanon frontier.
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