Seif
29-07-06, 12:23
Uncertainty as Hezbollah backs Lebanon PM truce plan
(AFP)
28 July 2006
BEIRUT - Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora secured a political victory by convincing Hezbollah government members to back his plan for a ceasefire with Israel but it remained unclear on Friday whether the move went beyond symbolic value.
Hezbollah said that it had taken its stance to “reinforce national unity” while Sinora’s allies hailed the decision as an important step in improving the credibility of the Lebanese government on the world stage.
The announcement late Thursday that the government had backed Siniora’s seven-point plan for a ceasefire came as ferocious battles continued in the south between Israeli forces and Hezbollah on the 17th day of Israel’s offensive.
A Western diplomatic source told AFP that “diplomatic efforts are intensifying to create conditions that are right for a ceasefire,” acknowledging that “Hezbollah is starting to show flexibility”
Hezbollah had previous qualified Siniora’s speech in Rome as merely personal ideas, so support for the plan from the cabinet, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, caught many commentators by surprise.
“The decision of the council of ministers is a surprise and one of the most important decisions taken for years,” said the anti-Syrian daily An-Nahar. “The government succeeded to address the international community with a single voice.”
In a speech to an international meeting on the Lebanon crisis in Rome earlier this week, Sinora laid out a plan for a ceasefire that demanded an exchange of prisoners between Lebanon and Israel and a pacification of their common border.
But even more crucially, the plan foresaw the Lebanese government exercising full sovereignty over its southern regions and the UN Security Council making an engagement to put the contested Shebaa farms area under United Nations jurisdiction.
Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said the cabinet also unanimously considered that Wednesday’s 15-nation conference in Rome had “achieved a breakthrough” by raising the issue of the Shebaa Farms.
Hezbollah has vowed to continue fighting Israel in order to free the Shebaa Farms which the Jewish state had seized from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, but is now claimed by Lebanon with the approval of Damascus.
“This is a positive development because it reinforces the credibility of the Siniora government towards the international community,” said MP Boutros Harb, who belongs to Siniora’s anti-Syrian parliamentary majority.
“The decisions of the government have been taken after a profound dialogue and we hope that Hezbollah will respect them,” he added.
But Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said that the Shia militant group, which has long controlled much of southern Lebanon and refuses to give up its arms, was ready to consider all suggestions but only after a ceasefire was agreed.
Hezbollah “is ready to study the question of the deployment of an international force on the condition that it respects Lebanese sovereignty. Thus all of us together are taking the same position within the government,” said
“For the moment neither the composition of this force, its mission or the framework of its deployment are clear. Let’s wait for what the international community will propose to us.”
“Nobody in Lebanon is opposed to Lebanese sovereignty being extended over all its territory.”
According to An-Nahar, Siniora told Hezbollah that Lebanon has to “keep two irons in the fire, that of military resistance to (Israeli) aggression but also put forward plans as the forthcoming diplomatic battle will be hard.”
“If we do nothing and play the waiting game we risk the UN Security Council imposing conditions that are not in out favour,” he said, according to the paper.
Bron: Khaleej Times (http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/July/middleeast_July675.xml§ion=middleeast)
(AFP)
28 July 2006
BEIRUT - Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora secured a political victory by convincing Hezbollah government members to back his plan for a ceasefire with Israel but it remained unclear on Friday whether the move went beyond symbolic value.
Hezbollah said that it had taken its stance to “reinforce national unity” while Sinora’s allies hailed the decision as an important step in improving the credibility of the Lebanese government on the world stage.
The announcement late Thursday that the government had backed Siniora’s seven-point plan for a ceasefire came as ferocious battles continued in the south between Israeli forces and Hezbollah on the 17th day of Israel’s offensive.
A Western diplomatic source told AFP that “diplomatic efforts are intensifying to create conditions that are right for a ceasefire,” acknowledging that “Hezbollah is starting to show flexibility”
Hezbollah had previous qualified Siniora’s speech in Rome as merely personal ideas, so support for the plan from the cabinet, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, caught many commentators by surprise.
“The decision of the council of ministers is a surprise and one of the most important decisions taken for years,” said the anti-Syrian daily An-Nahar. “The government succeeded to address the international community with a single voice.”
In a speech to an international meeting on the Lebanon crisis in Rome earlier this week, Sinora laid out a plan for a ceasefire that demanded an exchange of prisoners between Lebanon and Israel and a pacification of their common border.
But even more crucially, the plan foresaw the Lebanese government exercising full sovereignty over its southern regions and the UN Security Council making an engagement to put the contested Shebaa farms area under United Nations jurisdiction.
Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said the cabinet also unanimously considered that Wednesday’s 15-nation conference in Rome had “achieved a breakthrough” by raising the issue of the Shebaa Farms.
Hezbollah has vowed to continue fighting Israel in order to free the Shebaa Farms which the Jewish state had seized from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, but is now claimed by Lebanon with the approval of Damascus.
“This is a positive development because it reinforces the credibility of the Siniora government towards the international community,” said MP Boutros Harb, who belongs to Siniora’s anti-Syrian parliamentary majority.
“The decisions of the government have been taken after a profound dialogue and we hope that Hezbollah will respect them,” he added.
But Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said that the Shia militant group, which has long controlled much of southern Lebanon and refuses to give up its arms, was ready to consider all suggestions but only after a ceasefire was agreed.
Hezbollah “is ready to study the question of the deployment of an international force on the condition that it respects Lebanese sovereignty. Thus all of us together are taking the same position within the government,” said
“For the moment neither the composition of this force, its mission or the framework of its deployment are clear. Let’s wait for what the international community will propose to us.”
“Nobody in Lebanon is opposed to Lebanese sovereignty being extended over all its territory.”
According to An-Nahar, Siniora told Hezbollah that Lebanon has to “keep two irons in the fire, that of military resistance to (Israeli) aggression but also put forward plans as the forthcoming diplomatic battle will be hard.”
“If we do nothing and play the waiting game we risk the UN Security Council imposing conditions that are not in out favour,” he said, according to the paper.
Bron: Khaleej Times (http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/July/middleeast_July675.xml§ion=middleeast)