US-French split delays UN action on Mideast war

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States and France
were still at odds on Thursday over when and how Israel should
withdraw from Lebanon, delaying a U.N. resolution aimed at
ending the five-week war between Israel and Lebanon-based
Hizbollah guerrillas.

After a late Wednesday meeting among the five Security
Council members with veto power, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton
told reporters some progress had been made but no agreement had
been reached.

Despite pressure on the council to end the escalating
conflict, the dispute made it unlikely a draft resolution would
be introduced formally on Thursday in preparation for a vote 24
hours later, participants in the negotiations said.

The main obstacle is that France, backing Lebanon, wants
Israel to begin withdrawing 10,000 troops when Beirut’s army,
supported by U.N. peacekeepers, deploys in southern Lebanon,
now controlled by Hizbollah’s militia.

But the United States supports Israel’s position that it
keep its troops in Lebanon until the arrival of a larger and
better-armed international force, which France may lead.

The United States, France, Britain, Russia and China meet
again on Thursday to review proposals sent to their respective
governments overnight, especially an amendment from France.

This says that as 15,000 Lebanese troops begin to deploy in
the south, the Israeli army should start to “withdraw behind
the blue line,” a U.N.-demarcated border between Israel and
Lebanon, two council diplomats who asked not to be named
because of the secrecy of negotiations, told Reuters.

The operation would be aided by a beefed-up U.N.
peacekeeping force before the international troops arrive.

Lebanon, backed by the Arab League, wants all foreign
troops to be part of a U.N. force, but France is expected to
lead a separate U.N.-mandated mission, the envoys said.

TEXT AMENDED AFTER BEIRUT OBJECTS

The United States and France on Saturday agreed on a
resolution calling for a “cessation of hostilities” between
Israel and Hizbollah and setting out terms for a permanent
cease-fire. But Beirut objected to several provisions,
particularly the lack of a timetable for Israel’s 10,000 troops
to withdraw from Lebanon, prompting amendments to the text.

Both Bolton and his French counterpart, Jean-Marc de la
Sabliere, said the deployment of Lebanese troops was
significant and would be covered in a new draft resolution.

“We are getting closer on the way to resolving some of this
but I don’t want to underestimate the central and operational
difficulties,” Bolton told reporters late on Wednesday.

“There are areas where we are still not in agreement. There
is no doubt about that. I don’t want to appear to minimize
that,” Bolton said.

Said de la Sabliere: “There are still some differences that
we must quickly overcome.”

Other members of the Security Council appeared increasingly
impatient at the failure of the 15-member body to take a first
step to stop the fighting, which has killed over 1,000 Lebanese
and 116 Israelis in five weeks of war, sparked when Hizbollah
seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said he was
trying to get ambassadors to focus on the immediate need to
stop the fighting and put in place a political process.

“The basic elements of what needs to be done are clear. But
there are quite a few very complicated ideas about how these
basic principles, the basic elements, are to be implemented,”
Churkin told reporters.

On Wednesday, the Israeli cabinet approved plans for an
expanded ground offensive, which had been put on hold to allow
more time for U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to halt the war.