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UN Talks Focus on Terms of Cease-Fire

[Washington Post] Colum Lynch and Glenn Kessler - Lebanon's acting foreign minister, Tarek Mitri, said Wednesday he doubts that his government would agree to invite a European-led intervention force into southern Lebanon, citing fierce opposition from Hizballah and its key foreign backers, Syria and Iran. He also said "no solution" to the current violence in Lebanon can be found without the participation of Syria and Iran in the search for a political settlement. Diplomats said France and the U.S. largely agree on a set of principles that would include clearing the area between Israel's border and the Litani River of all armed personnel and weapons other than the Lebanese military and a UN-mandated force. Diplomats said Wednesday that an agreement was unlikely to be reached until next week. The proposal to expand the UN role is opposed by Israel, which has faulted the UN force for failing to restrain Hizballah's attacks against Israel for more than two decades. The head of the UN peacekeeping department, Jean-Marie Guehenno, told the French newspaper Le Monde that in the best case "it will take months" to send a large peacekeeping mission to Lebanon.
2006-08-03 01:00:00
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