[Vision2020] Olmert accepts Mideast cease-fire proposal

Fri Aug 11 15:39:56 PDT 2006

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has accepted an emerging 
Mideast cease-fire deal and informed the United States of his decision, 
Israeli officials said Friday.

Olmert will recommend that his government approve the deal in its upcoming 
meeting on Sunday, said Gideon Meir, a senior official in the Israeli 
Foreign Ministry.

Meir said the military offensive would continue for the time being. It was 
not immediately clear if it would be halted after the U.N. Security Council 
vote on the cease-fire deal in coming hours, or only after the Israeli 
Cabinet has endorsed it.

U.N. diplomats worked furiously on the cease-fire deal to deploy 15,000 U.N. 
peacekeepers in southern Lebanon to bring an end to the monthlong conflict 
between Israel and Hezbollah.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CNN on Friday that the U.S. expects 
the governments of Israel and Lebanon to accept the U.N. resolution.

Earlier, Israeli troops and tanks assembled along the Israel-Lebanon border, 
preparing for a possible massive incursion.

Israel had expressed dissatisfaction over an initial cease-fire plan, saying 
it failed to meet its basic requirements, such as stationing robust 
international combat troops in southern Lebanon once Israel withdraws.

But after France and the U.S. reached a deal on a revised draft resolution, 
Israel indicated it may accept the new arrangement and call off its 
offensive. The U.N. Security Council was expected to vote on the text later 
Friday.

The draft Security Council resolution would authorize the deployment of the 
15,000 U.N. peacekeepers in south Lebanon to support the Lebanese army's 
deployment to the region "as Israel withdraws."

The draft, obtained by The Associated Press, would ask the U.N. force to 
monitor a full cessation of hostilities and help Lebanese forces gain full 
control over an area that has previously been under de facto control of 
Hezbollah militias.

The text of the draft says the force's mandate would include several 
elements: monitoring the cessation of hostilities, accompanying Lebanese 
troops as they deploy and as Israel withdraws, and ensuring humanitarian 
access to the area.

About 2,000 U.N. troops and observers are now stationed in Lebanon, as they 
have been since 1978. The draft would authorize an increase to a total of 
15,000 troops.

Concession to Lebanon and Hezbollah
Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry said the resolution would give a 
U.N. force in Lebanon an enhanced mandate to help coordinate the eventual 
withdrawal of Israeli troops. But it would ultimately be deployed under 
Chapter 6 of the U.N. Charter — which Israel has previously opposed.

That decision was a key concession to Lebanon and Hezbollah. Israel wanted 
the force deployed under the Charter’s Chapter 7, which would give the 
troops more robust rules of engagement.

“You’ll find that the mandate for the force is very robust,” Jones-Parry 
said.

“Although the government of Lebanon will have gained a certain amount in the 
changes that we’ve made, it’s also the case that Israel has had concerns and 
no one has wanted to lose Israel from that equation,” he said.

The two sides sent the new text to the governments of Israel and Lebanon, 
but a French diplomat said the vote would go ahead whatever the response.

Israel denies wider offensive began
Earlier Friday, Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz decided on the 
massive new ground campaign after meeting for several hours.

Olmert’s spokesman, Asaf Shariv, told The Associated Press that the expanded 
incursion had already begun. However, other officials said the army was 
preparing to move into Lebanon en masse but had not yet begun to do so.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Olmert to ask him if there 
was any room left for diplomacy to solve the Mideast crisis, said an 
individual close to the government with direct knowledge of the 
conversation.

Olmert has indicated he’d be willing to call off the offensive if Israel’s 
basic demands were met, said the individual, who spoke on condition of 
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the private conversation.

Blasting bridges
Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded Hezbollah positions throughout the 
day in an attempt to gain unchallenged command of strategic high ground and 
disrupt guerrilla rocket attacks across the border.

Israeli aircraft fired at least five rockets at a convoy of hundreds of cars 
carrying people fleeing south Lebanon on Friday, killing at least two people 
and wounding eight, witnesses and rescue workers said.

In far northern Lebanon, Israeli jets blasted a key bridge to Syria, killing 
at least 12 people, as the conflict for the first time touched the entire 
length of Lebanon — from skirmishes on the Israeli border in the south to 
the airstrike on the northern frontier about 105 miles away.

Hezbollah sent another barrage of more than 150 rockets toward northern 
Israel, it said. Israeli rescue workers said eight people in the port of 
Haifa were wounded by shrapnel, but they estimated the Hezbollah attack at 
about 80 missiles by midday.

The heaviest fighting continued around Marjayoun, an important hub just 
north of Israel’s Galilee panhandle that juts into Lebanon. An AP reporter 
briefly entered the embattled city and saw intense Israeli bombardment of 
dug-in Hezbollah fighters.

The mostly Christian city gives Israeli gunners a view of the Litani River 
valley and other areas used as launching grounds for Hezbollah rockets. 
Israeli tanks rolled into Marjayoun on Thursday after coming under withering 
Hezbollah ambushes along the way.

Mass exodus slowed by violence
Hundreds of civilian vehicles joined a convoy escorted by U.N. peacekeepers 
leaving Marjayoun. The exodus — which was slowed by nearby Israeli shelling 
— included about 350 Lebanese soldiers and police who were in the city when 
Israeli forces poured in.

Marjayoun Mayor Fuad Hamra told the AP by telephone from the convoy that he 
blames the Lebanese government for abandoning state institutions in the 
region. “As of tonight and in the coming days, Marjayoun will be a field for 
destruction,” he said.

By taking Marjayoun, the Israeli army was closer to Beirut than at any time 
since the fighting began July 12 after a cross-border raid in which 
Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three.

Powerful explosions resounded across Beirut. Local media reported Israeli 
warplanes hit Hezbollah strongholds in the southern Dahieh suburb.

Israel also struck an area close to the Lebanese border crossing at Masnaa 
in the Bekaa Valley, about 30 miles southeast of Beirut, but there were no 
reports of casualties. Masnaa is the main crossing into Syria, and the main 
escape route for hundreds of displaced Lebanese who fled the country over 
land.

Israeli planes dropped leaflets over parts of Beirut, saying Hezbollah 
leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah is “cheating” the Lebanese and hiding the 
number of losses among the militiamen. The paper included the names of about 
90 fighters Israel said were killed.

Israel has imposed a virtual lockdown on traffic across southern Lebanon and 
key northern routes, seeking to cut off weapons and aid shipments to 
Hezbollah. The attack on the Abboudiyeh border crossing apparently reflected 
Israeli fears that Hezbollah was still being supplied via Syria — which is 
Hezbollah’s main sponsor along with Iran.

12 die in bridge attack
At least 12 people were killed in the attack on the bridge, spanning the 
northern border, security officials said. That left the northern coastal 
road as the only official border crossing to Syria open for those trying to 
flee Lebanon.

Two other Lebanese civilians were killed elsewhere, officials said.

At the same time, Israeli forces were still locked in relentless clashes 
with guerrillas along the southern border.

Hezbollah said it killed or wounded 15 Israeli soldiers near the border 
village of Aita al-Shaab. It also said Israeli forces suffered casualties 
near the southern village of Rachaf. Israel did not immediately release 
information on battlefield losses.

Hezbollah said four of its fighters had been killed, but did not say when or 
where.

The guerrilla group’s Al-Manar TV said Hezbollah fighters hit an Israeli 
gunboat off Tyre in southern Lebanon, but the Israeli military denied it.

More than 800 people in Lebanon and Israel have died since fighting erupted 
— 732 on the Lebanese side and 122 on the Israeli side.

J  :]

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