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Security Council Discusses Endorsing Israeli Pullout from Lebanon
With Lebanon still insisting that Israel occupies part of its territory, the UN Security Council met Saturday to discuss endorsing Secretary-General Kofi Annan's announcement that Israel has completely withdrawn from southern Lebanon.
A day after he first rejected the UN verification of Israel's pullout, Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss said Saturday that Lebanon is committed to cooperating with the United Nations. But he reiterated that the country ``insists on recovering every inch of its territory.''
The United Nations had long planned to move in after an Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon and verify that Israel had completely left Lebanese soil. Before heading to the Middle East on Friday, Annan announced that the world body had completed the verification process.
But Hoss quickly responded, saying Lebanese officers working with the UN team inspecting the border had found several Israeli military outposts inside Lebanon. His rejection of the UN announcement was a setback for Annan, who had hoped to discuss the next steps to achieve peace in the Middle East during his trip to the region.
Instead, the controversy will likely dominate Annan's meetings in Beirut on Monday with top Lebanese officials.
Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 and occupied part of southern Lebanon as a buffer against guerrilla attacks on northern Israel from 1985 until its withdrawal on May 24. Under the 1978 Security Council resolutions, UN peacekeeping troops were to help the Lebanese army restore security and authority in the border zone after UN workers verified Israel's departure.
But the dispute over Israel's withdrawal has delayed the deployment of the peacekeeping troops and more critically the deployment of the Lebanese army to the region. The Lebanese army's presence is important because since the Israeli pullout, Shiite Muslim Hezbollah guerrillas who fought the Israeli troops for years have moved into the former occupied zone and taken de facto control.
The guerrilla presence in the zone right across from Israel's border is especially a concern for residents of northern Israeli towns, who fear guerrilla attacks. On Saturday, Hezbollah warned it will resume attacks on Israel's north if the Jewish state does not give up tracts of land claimed by Lebanon.
``All violations should be dealt with; ... otherwise we consider the mission of liberating Lebanese territory to be incomplete and resistance remains our choice to liberate the last inch of our occupied land,'' Hezbollah said in a statement.
The draft statement being debated by the Security Council calls on the Lebanese government ``to ensure the return of its effective authority and to maximize its presence in the south.'' It welcomes measures taken by the secretary-general to beef up the 4,500-strong UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, but it stresses that UN redeployment to the border ``shall be carried out in coordination with the redeployment of the Lebanese armed forces.''
A Security Council endorsement of Israel's withdrawal would put its political weight behind the UN position, rather than Lebanon's. That could pose difficulties for some council members, particularly Russia. Moscow has close ties to Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon.
Timur Goksel, spokesman for the UN force in Lebanon, said Saturday that no peacekeepers will be deployed before matters are sorted out with the Lebanese government, possibly during talks Monday with Annan.
``It has been said all along that Lebanese consent is a prerequisite of UN deployment in any place in the country,'' he said.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak's office welcomed Annan's declaration, saying in a statement Saturday that it now expects the United Nations to act to ``help restore law and order in the area.''
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