Senior government officials in Israel expressed satisfaction at the draft of the UN Security Council resolution on Lebanon Saturday night, saying it safeguarded a number of key Israeli interests - foremost that the IDF would remain in south Lebanon until an international force arrives.
John Bolton, United States Ambassador to UN leaves the building of the French Mission to United Nations.
Photo: AP
The US and France agreed on a draft Saturday that calls for a full cessation of the fighting but preserves Israel's right to respond if attacked. The Security Council was scheduled to debate the resolution later Saturday in New York, and it was expected to come to a full vote "in another couple of days."
The draft "calls for a full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hizbullah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations." The resolution also calls for UNIFIL, "upon cessation of hostilities," to monitor the resolution's implementation and to extend its assistance on humanitarian issues. It did not, however, call for the immediate withdrawal of IDF troops.
Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Sunday that the draft resolution was good for Israel, but the country still had military goals to meet in Lebanon.
"Even if it is passed, it is doubtful that Hizbullah will honor the resolution and halt its fire," Ramon told Israel's Army Radio. "Therefore we have to continue fighting, continue hitting anyone we can hit in Hizbullah, and I assume that as long as that goes on, Israel's position, diplomatically and militarily, will improve."
Ramon said that even if the UN passed a cease-fire resolution, Israel would not withdraw from a buffer zone several kilometers (miles) deep in south Lebanon until the international force arrived.
"There is no doubt that until a multinational force arrives ... Israel will remain in the security zone it is in now, and no one can act against Israel," he said. "A cease-fire, if it comes, will be one that leaves Israel in a zone of six, seven, eight kilometers (four to five miles)."
"If we see there are launchers who are going to fire Katyusha (rockets) at Israel, we have the right to respond," he said.
Israeli officials interpreted the text to mean that the IDF would remain in south Lebanon to ensure that Hizbullah did not move back into the area once the fighting stopped.
This would be a major victory for Israel, which has insisted it must have the right to respond if Hizbullah launches missiles against it. France and many other nations had demanded an immediate, unconditional halt to violence.
However, the resolution did not incorporate another key Israeli demand, namely that there would be no deal to end the fighting until an international force - separate from UNIFIL - would be ready to immediately take up its positions.
Rather, according to this draft, the Security Council would only authorize a new international force for the region once Israel and Lebanon agree to a series of principles laid out in this resolution. This sequencing was considered a victory for the French.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was meeting Saturday night with the "Forum of Seven," his senior cabinet ministers, to discuss the proposal.
Ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman made clear on Channel 2 that this proposal was just a draft based on an understanding between the US and France, that there was no agreement on the language at this stage and that many changes could be introduced. He added that the Russians were unhappy at being left out of the process.
Gillerman also said there was Israeli input into the draft, and that Jerusalem had been updated frequently, with numerous conversations between Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Each of the 15 countries on the Security Council have Middle East experts, and they were all now expected to deliberate on the draft over the next two or three days, Israeli officials said. As a consequence, they said, the government would not - out of "tactical considerations" - formally respond to the resolution until it was finalized.
The officials said that another important aspect of the resolution from Israel's perspective was that while it called for the unconditional release of the kidnapped IDF soldiers, it indicated that the release of Lebanese prisoners held in Israel would be part of a longer process.
