Times Of Oman: War ends .... but not Israeli threats

War ends .... but not Israeli threats

JERUSALEM | August 16, 2006

Israel will be forced to launch a fresh offensive against Hezbollah if the Lebanese group is not disarmed, a senior Foreign Ministry official said yesterday.

“If the international community decides to ignore Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm it means that sooner or later we will return to war,” the official said.

UN Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the month-long fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, calls for the deployment of the Lebanese Army and a multinational force in south Lebanon as well as Hezbollah’s disarming.

“If the international community ignores a violation of the resolution, we would be forced to react,” the official added.

Although it has accepted the ceasefire deal that came into effect on Monday and silenced its guns, Hezbollah has made it clear it would refuse to give up its weapons.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s government yesterday ordered 15,000 troops to move to south to take full control, with UN peacekeepers, when Israeli troops withdraw after a 34-day war with Hezbollah fighters.

Officials said Lebanese troops would start deploying south of the Litani River, about 20km from the Israeli border, today.

The cabinet, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, reached its decision only hours after Israel’s Army chief said a possible pullout from the south within 10 days depended on the Lebanese Army and a beefed-up UN force moving in quickly.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, whose country may lead the new UN force and who called earlier in the day for a quick Lebanese Army deployment, met Prime Minister Fuad Siniora in Beirut just before the cabinet session.

A cabinet statement said the army would not allow the presence of any armed group or any authority outside the jurisdiction of the state but did not mention any withdrawal of Hezbollah’s fighters or the rockets they rained on northern Israel during the conflict.

“We have agreed to this decision without any reservations,” Energy Minister Mohammed Fneish, an official of the Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah, told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said the army would confiscate any weapons found in the area, but added: “There will not be any confrontation with the brothers in Hezbollah.”

Israel and Hezbollah have generally maintained a fragile truce in the south since Monday, following a UN Security Council resolution that authorised up to 13,000 well-armed troops to augment the 2,000-strong UNIFIL force now in Lebanon.
An estimated 200,000 mostly Shi’ite refugees have streamed home this week, many of them to villages devastated by bombing.

The truce has allowed belated burials of some war victims.

“It’s the first chance we’ve had. We’ve been on the road for 11 hours,” said Raouf Shayato, who arrived at Tyre hospital to collect the body of his cousin Nazira, killed on July 22.

More than 100 corpses lie unclaimed at the overflowing hospital mortuary. Officials postponed plans for a mass burial to give relatives more time to collect them.
Civilians have returned en masse without waiting for Israel to leave pockets of territory it has occupied in the south.

“If the Lebanese army does not move down within a number of days to the south ... the way I see it, we must stop our withdrawal,” Israeli army chief Dan Halutz said.
However, a senior Israeli government official, who asked not to be named, said Israeli forces would not withdraw completely until the expanded UN force and Lebanese army move in.

Before that, the official said, the army would pull back gradually to a narrow no-go zone along the border, which it could control largely with artillery, tank fire and air strikes.

Hezbollah reiterated that it has the right to attack any Israeli forces remaining on Lebanese soil.

“The presence of Israeli tanks in the south is an aggression and the resistance reserves its right to face such aggression if it persists,” Sheikh Nabil Kaouk, Hezbollah’s top official in south Lebanon, said in Tyre.

Hezbollah has promised to cooperate with Lebanese and UN forces, but has made clear it will keep its weapons — although political sources say it has offered to keep them out of sight.

The United Nations said on Tuesday it wanted to deploy up to 3,500 new soldiers in south Lebanon within two weeks.

Douste-Blazy said France was ready to play an important role a bigger UNIFIL, but that many other nations should contribute.

Meanwhile, a senior government official said Israel has told the United Nations that it will oppose the inclusion of troops from countries such as Malaysia in a planned UN force for southern Lebanon.


“Israel has informed the UN in no uncertain terms that it will not accept any countries in the force that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel,” the official said.

Objections from Israel could complicate efforts by the United Nations to quickly assemble a force for southern Lebanon to enforce a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that took effect on Monday.

A UN Security Council resolution calls for deploying up to 15,000 troops. But a senior UN official said he doubted enough countries would come forward to reach that goal any time soon.

Malaysia and Indonesia have each offered to send 1,000 troops to Lebanon. They have
no diplomatic ties with Israel and strongly support the Palestinian cause.
Mainly Muslim Malaysia last week urged countries to cut diplomatic ties with Israel to protest the war in Lebanon.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev refused to confirm Israel’s stance on the matter.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, over the weekend listed Malaysia and Indonesia among the non-EU countries prepared to join the international force.

Asked about Malaysia and Indonesia joining the force, Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Sunday: “We are not going to say that there are some states that we believe shouldn’t be part of these forces.”

But the senior Israeli official said Israel’s position had changed.

“Some of the countries that have volunteered have cooperated with Hezbollah,” the senior Israeli official said, declining to offer any details.

-- AFP, Reuters