Haaretz
Av 15, 2006
An Arab League delegation
accused the Security Council on Tuesday of standing by idly while weeks of
fighting between Israel and Hezbollah sew "the seeds of hatred and
extremism" in the Middle East.
"It is most saddening that the
council stands idly by, crippled, unable to stop the bloodbath which has
become the bitter daily lot of the defenseless Lebanese people," Qatari
Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al-Thani, the head of a
three-man Arab League delegation, told the 15-nation council.
"What
is happening will sew the seeds of hatred and extremism in the area and
provide a pretext for those who feel that the international community is
taking sides and lacks fairness as to this dispute," he told the 15-
nation council.
Russia seeks interim resolution
Russia
urged the UN Security Council on Tuesday to adopt an interim resolution
calling for "humanitarian cessation of fire" in Lebanon, if it fails
quickly to overcome differences over a wider document.
Beirut has
objected to a draft resolution calling for a cessation to hostilities in
the nearly month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas
because it did not contain a call for an immediate withdrawal of Israel
Defense Forces troops from southern Lebanon.
Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Andrei Denisov said in remarks posted on his ministry's website
that Moscow wanted Lebanese opinion to be taken into account in the
resolution co-authored by the United States and France.
"Otherwise,
the resolution could turn out not to work, as has happened in the past,"
he said. "Moreover, an unbalanced decision by the Council is fraught with
risks of exploding Lebanon's fragile internal political
situation."
"If differences over the current project are
maintained, a short Security Council resolution on a humanitarian
cessation of fire should be urgently adopted as aninterim step," Denisov
added. He did not expand further on the idea.
The United States has
resisted the Lebanese demand for an Israeli withdrawal to be covered in
the draft.
Qatar: Draft resolution will result in 'grave
ramifications'
Qatar's foreign minister warned Tuesday that the
draft resolution would only complicate the crisis and result in "grave
ramifications" for Lebanon and the entire region.
Hamad bin Jassem
Al Thani told the Security Council that the U.S.-French draft would be
impossible to enforce in its current form. He said the resolution must
call for the withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces troops from southern
Lebanon and the strengthening of UN peacekeepers already deployed in the
region.
"We draw the attention of the august council to the
repercussions of adopting a non-enforceable resolution that would further
complicate the situation on the ground and have grave ramification for
Lebanon, Arab countries and all the countries of the region," Al Thani
said.
At the same time, Al Thani implicitly criticized the council
for having taken little substantive action thus far in response to the
war, which began when Hezbollah captured two IDF soldiers on July 12 and
has killed hundreds of people.
"It is most saddening that this
council stands idly by, crippled, unable to stop the bloodbath which has
become the bitter daily lot of the defenseless Lebanese people," Al Thani
said.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that he is
confident there will be consensus on a United Nations resolution to end
the fighting in the Middle East by Wednesday.
The UN Security
Council was to convene Tuesday at 3 P.M. local time (10 P.M. Israel time)
to discuss the crisis and the UN resolution, which was drafted by the U.S.
and France.
Qatar is thought to have requested the Tuesday session
following Monday's decision by Arab foreign ministers to send an Arab
League delegation to the UN in an effort to secure Lebanese requested
changes to the draft.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa is
expected to address the council. Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan
Gillerman, will also exercise Israel's right to respond.
Speaking
on the BBC, Blair urged the international community "to get it down and
get it done without delay."
He said diplomats should "take account"
of representations from the Lebanese government and other Arab states, but
this should be done quickly.
"I think we can achieve what the
Lebanese government wants to see as well as what the Israeli government
wants to see, which is the government of Lebanon back in full charge of
its own territory without leaving a vacuum in which the Hezbollah militia
can move in," Blair said.
Blair, who has delayed the start of his
summer holidays because of the crisis, has been speaking on the phone to
international leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and
French President Jacques Chirac.
The Qatari request was perceived
on Monday by diplomats in New York as a defiant move against the United
States and France, which have been trying since Saturday to push through
their draft proposal. Tuesday's session now means a discussion and vote on
the U.S.-French draft proposal that was supposed to have taken place on
Monday will be held over the weekend at best.
"The diplomatic
process has run aground," a veteran political commentator at the UN said
Monday.
Bush: We must not create Hezbollah vacuum in
Lebanon
Meanwhile, sources at the UN said Monday that U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was supposed to arrive in New
York on Tuesday, had postponed her arrival in the city. UN sources also
said Bush's address Monday was a clear-cut expression of opposition to
substantial changes in the draft proposal.
Bush told reporters at
his ranch in Crawford, Texas, that he was adamantly opposed to Lebanon's
demand to amend the proposal to include a demand for an immediate Israeli
withdrawal from South Lebanon.
"Whatever happens in the UN, we
must not create a vacuum into which Hezbollah and its sponsors are able to
move more weapons," Bush said, adding, "Sometimes, the world likes to take
the easy route to solve a problem. Our view is that it is time to address
the root causes of problems, and to create a vacuum ... is unacceptable."
In what was seen as a special message to the Arabs, Bush stressed
that the goal of the resolution was to provide a comprehensive solution
that would rehabilitate Lebanon's sovereignty and facilitate a sustainable
peace.
Despite the U.S.'s vehement opposition to changes in the
draft proposal, UN sources believe the Bush administration will agree to
various non-substantial changes. "The United States and the members of the
Security Council will not be able to disregard Fouad Siniora's opposition
to the current version of the resolution," a senior Western diplomat told
Haaretz last night.
Unconfirmed reports said the French are
prepared to make changes to the draft proposal. "It is not by chance that
the French president has not been heard over the past two days," the
diplomat said.