Haaretz
Elul 29, 5766
It is time for Israel to take
responsibility and abide by United Nations resolutions, Lebanese President
Emile Lahoud said Thursday in his address to the UN General
Assembly.
Lahoud called the Israel Defense Forces' 34-day operation
on southern Lebanon a "barbaric aggression," and said "this savagery did
not weaken our people's resolve."
"It is time to ask Israel to
finally abide by past and current UN resolutions," Lahoud said. The
president also called on the international community to "safeguard"
resolution 1701, which led to the cease-fire between IDF troops and
Hezbollah guerillas, though he accused the United Nations of having been
"powerless to stop slaughter of the war."
Lahoud said that despite
the destruction and mass casualties accrued during the recent war, "the
will of our people to move forward has proved stronger than their
despair."
Lahoud also accused Israel of holding hostage Lebanese
citizens, and asked the world to stand by Lebanon.
The wife of Ehud
Goldwasser, one of the IDF soldiers abducted by Hezbollah militants,
approached Lahoud after his speech and introduced herself. The Lebanese
president responded to Karnit Goldwasser in Arabic, and walked
on.
IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz on Wednesday said that troops
would not be ready to leave Lebanon on Friday, as predicted. The IDF had
agreed to withdraw all military personnel from southern Lebanon as soon as
50,000 troops from the UN peacekeeping forces had deployed, as occurred
earlier this week.