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Key powers agree deal to end Israel-Hizbollah war

Posted on: Friday, 11 August 2006, 13:33 CDT

By Evelyn Leopold and Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Key U.N. Security Council members have agreed on a resolution to end Israel's month-old war with Hizbollah and a vote was possible later on Friday, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said.

An Israeli political source said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was reviewing the draft resolution. Israel's Channel 10 television said the text had been "positively received."

Earlier in the day, Israel ordered an expansion of its ground offensive and said it would press ahead with the campaign if it was unhappy with any deal. Israeli tank forces were preparing for orders to sweep into Lebanon after the wider offensive was approved, Israeli television reported.

"We have an agreed text," Beckett told reporters, adding she hoped that Israel and Lebanon would abide by it. She said the full Security Council would receive the draft at 1900 GMT.

The deal calls for an immediate "cessation of hostilities" followed by a phased withdrawal of Israeli units as the Lebanese army and an expanded U.N. force move into southern Lebanon.

Up to 15,000 French and other troops are expected to strengthen the U.N. peacekeeping force. As part of the deal, Hizbollah would pull out from south of the Litani River, 20 km (13 miles) from the Israeli border.

The timing of Israel's withdrawal and the nature of the international force sent into the area had been the main points of contention that held up a deal this week.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to New York in anticipation of a vote on ending the war, in which at least 1,030 people in Lebanon and 123 Israelis have been killed.

French officials said Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy was en route to the United Nations.

A senior Lebanese political source said Lebanese leaders had made progress in talks with a U.S. official in Beirut and Beirut had no further major objections to the proposed deal.

At the insistence of Lebanon, the United States and Britain agreed to drop a reference to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which permits a robust U.N. peacekeeping operation.

But Britain's U.N. ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said the text would carry strong rules of engagement anyway for the expanded force that France is expected to lead.

A second resolution on a permanent ceasefire would follow within a month, tackling a range of issues including the release of two Israeli soldiers held by Hizbollah.

NO LET-UP IN VIOLENCE

There was no immediate let-up in the violence in Lebanon and Israel. Air raids killed another 19 people in Lebanon. An Israeli soldier was reported killed in fighting and Hizbollah rockets wounded seven people in northern Israel.

Israeli raids on a bridge near the border with Syria killed 12 people and wounded 18, hospital staff said. Witnesses said a second strike hit the bridge 15 minutes after the first had brought rescuers rushing to the scene.

Israeli strikes killed two people in the eastern Bekaa Valley and five in south Lebanon, security sources said.

An Israeli soldier was killed and one was badly wounded in fighting with Hizbollah guerrillas, Al Arabiya television reported. The Israeli army had no immediate comment.

More bombs hit Beirut's battered Shi'ite Muslim suburbs, hours after dawn raids on the capital. Many people fled the suburbs on Thursday after Israel dropped warning leaflets.

Hizbollah, whose seizure of two Israeli soldiers sparked the war on July 12, fired more than 55 rockets into Israel, wounding seven people, police and ambulance staff said.

Humanitarian agencies sought ways to get aid to an estimated 100,000 people trapped in southern Lebanon and the mayor of Tyre said the city could run out of food in two days.

Aid convoys have been unable to deliver supplies since an Israeli air strike hit a bridge on the Litani River on Monday.

(Additional reporting by Jerusalem, Beirut, Washington, Paris, and Dubai bureaux)

Source: REUTERS

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