Israel Ignores Cease-fire Deal, Pushes Deeper Into Lebanon

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Quote:Israel Ignores Cease-Fire Deal, Pushes Deeper Into Lebanon
By Philip White, August 12, 2006

(EUNN) London - Israeli military ground forces pushed deeper into Southern Lebanon Saturday, ignoring a cease-fire deal hammered out between members of the UN Security Council, with Israeli government spokespersons saying Israel will most likely accept the cease-fire resolution but doubts whether Hezbollah will.

Sunday Israel's Cabinet is expected to meet and approve the UN Security Council resolution, but its military plans to make as deep a push into Southern Lebanon as possible before any cease-fire can take affect. Israeli ground forces were moving 20,000 strong 30 kilometers inside Lebanon toward the Litani River, intent on putting as much space between Hezbollah militants and the Israeli border as possible.

Heavy fighting between Hezbollah militants and Israeli ground troops in several areas supposedly put Israel's advances at a stand still, the militant group claims.

Israel's top military commander, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, said Saturday that Israeli troops would continue operations in Lebanon, until the cease-fire is implemented.

Early Saturday, the 15-member UN Security Council unanimously adopted a cease-fire plan worked out by US and French diplomats. The resolution calls for a full cessation of hostilities based on the immediate cessation of attacks by Hezbollah and the immediate end of all offensive operations by Israel.

France, Britain and the United States finalized the revised resolution on Friday.

"The prime minister will recommend that the government in its upcoming meeting Sunday support the resolutions in light of the changes in the resolution that are in accordance with Israel's position," Israeli officials told reporters late Friday.

The revised resolution authorizes an increase in the UNIFIL force to 15,000 and calls on the peacekeeping force to assist the Lebanese Army in keeping the south free of Hezbollah gunmen and preventing arms smuggling into Lebanon. However, the resolution does not require the immediate return of two Israeli soldiers captured on July 12, the event that launched the war.

Olmert spoke with President Bush on Friday and thanked him "for his assistance in safeguarding Israel's interests at the Security Council," an Israeli official said.

Following the news of the UN Security Council passing the resolution, President Bush said, "I now urge the international community to turn words into action and make every effort to bring lasting peace to the region."

On Friday, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the Israeli army to expand ground operations in Lebanon.

The Israeli Cabinet on Wednesday approved an operation calling for a push to the Litani River, but had delayed it to give more time for diplomatic efforts to bear fruit, the Jewish Telegraph Agency reports.

In an interview with CBS News following the Un Security Council's vote, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested that a focus of the Security Council's mandate was to eliminate the state within a state situation in Lebanon and return control and decision-making to the Lebanese government, suggesting that both France and the US had agreed that Hezbollah had to disarm and let Lebanon govern itself.

Rice's comments imply that Syria's support of Hezbollah was a left over of Lebanon's "green revolution" in which Syria's then-control of the Lebanese government was relinquished, though the Sect. of State would not come right out and say that.

"Now you have a government willing to take on its responsibilities, including its responsibilities under the Taif Accord and under 1559 to have no unauthorized armed groups," said Rice. "And there are Hezbollah ministers who were elected to this government, and I assume that they're going to cooperate."

Rice pointedly said, "Syria has obligations under Resolution 1559 concerning the sovereignty of Lebanon that it has to live up to now."

Resolution 1559 called for disarmament, but instead of the Lebanese government enforcing it, it sat idle due to Hezbollah ministers being elected to government.

Rice called Iran the "central banker" of regional state-sponsored terrorism and said that if Iran did not cooperate with the UN that a Resolution should be passed that imposes financial sanctions making it more difficult for Iran to support terrorism in the Middle East.

Iran's deadline comes on August 31st and Secretary Rice thinks that the regime in Tehran was surprised that China and Russia both supported the text in the UN nuclear disarmament proposal. Rice said that if Iran passes its deadline, the UN Security Council would vote on a new resolution imposing sanctions on Iran to "pay a price for their defiance of the international system."

http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsectio...articleid=10850

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**UPdate

new ceasfire timeline agreed upon is Monday 1AM for both sides, meanwhile sunday they bomb the shit out of each other...