UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Friday that calls for a halt to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and authorizes the deployment of 15,000 foreign troops to help the Lebanese army take control of southern Lebanon.
The resolution calls on Israel to begin withdrawing all its forces from Lebanon “in parallel” with the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers and 15,000 Lebanese troops. It gives the international force the mandate to use firepower but no explicit role in disarming Hezbollah, leaving the fate of the militia to a future political settlement.
Israel and Lebanon agreed to accept the terms of the U.N. cease-fire, according to U.S. and U.N. diplomats. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will ask his cabinet to approve the resolution when it meets Sunday, according to Israeli officials. The Lebanese cabinet is scheduled to vote on it today.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the cease-fire will not go into effect immediately. She said U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan will consult with Israel and Lebanon in the coming days to set a date for the cessation of hostilities.
“No one can expect an immediate end to all acts of violence,” Rice said. She cautioned that “the conditions of a lasting peace must be nurtured over time.”
The resolution provides the first significant hope for a gradual reduction in the violence – and potentially an end to the monthlong conflict, which has killed more than 800 Lebanese and 122 Israelis. Fighting continued Friday, with Israeli warplanes strafing vehicles evacuating people from the town of Marjayoun, killing four people, and with Hezbollah firing 124 rockets into Israel but causing no casualties.
Annan said the United Nations’ failure to act sooner had “badly shaken the world’s faith” in the body. “I would be remiss if I did not tell you how profoundly disappointed I am that the council did not reach this point much, much earlier,” he said.
The United Nations will hold talks on the peacekeeping force today to determine the type of forces to be used and which countries will contribute.
The force will have to be deployed faster than any previous U.N. force, according to sources familiar with past operations. Although its size has been determined, its structure and the types of units needed have not. An enormous amount of work will have to be done quickly even to get the initial units to Beirut and then to southern Lebanon.
U.S. officials said they believe that at least some members of Hezbollah have endorsed the ideas in the proposal because Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora won unanimous cabinet support – including from two Hezbollah ministers – for approving the deployment of an expanded U.N. force.
In a compromise that straddles the demands of Israel and Lebanon, the U.N. resolution will allow the U.N. force to take “all necessary action” in areas where it is deployed to ensure that its area is “not utilized for hostile activities of any kind, to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties.”
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