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Rice: "Lebanese Government Has an Obligation to Start the Disarmament of Hizballah"

[State Department] U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Israel Radio on Saturday: "I believe that this is a resolution that really does enhance Israel's security because, for the first time in really a very long time, there is an opportunity to extend the authority of the Lebanese government and army with an international force that will be a substantial force, into the south of the country and to keep Hizballah away from the border." "If we do our work right, this will be an enduring cease-fire. One reason that, as much as we wanted an immediate stop to the hostilities, that the United States refused to just call for an immediate stop to the hostilities, was that we thought we needed to have in place some conditions that might give us a chance to have an enduring cease-fire. I'm quite certain now that there will be an international force that will have a robust mandate. It will have real troops in it. Even though it's called UNIFIL, this is not the same force; this is going to be a very different force. And that force of more than 15,000 Lebanese soldiers and about 15,000 international forces should make the south a very different place, a safer place, and a place to which Hizballah cannot return to the kinds of activities that led it to, without the knowledge of the Lebanese government, attack Israel....The plan is that, as soon as this force is in, of course the Lebanese government has an obligation to start the disarmament of Hizballah."
2006-08-14 01:00:00
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