UN concern over Israeli ceasefire violation
Kofi Annan has called on all sides to exercise "maximum restraint" in Lebanon
Also In The News
|
Juan Carlos Ferrero easily overcame fellow Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-3 6-4 to reach the final of the Cincinatti Masters. |  |
Sunday, 20, Aug 2006 09:32
The secretary general of the UN has expressed concern over a commando raid launched by Israeli forces against a Hizbullah outpost in Lebanon yesterday, an action which Kofi Annan said had violated the fragile ceasefire agreement in the Middle East.
One Israeli soldier was killed and two others injured during fighting sparked by the night raid in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, with special forces reportedly landed by helicopters in fields close to the city of Baalbek, a known Hizbullah stronghold.
The raid is the most serious incident of violence in the region since a UN-backed truce between Israel and the militant Lebanese group Hizbullah came into force on Monday.
"The secretary general is deeply concerned about a violation by the Israeli side of the cessation of hostilities as laid out in security council resolution 1701," said a spokesman for Mr Annan in a statement.
Such violations "endanger the fragile calm" that was reached in the region following diplomatic efforts and "undermine the authority of the government of Lebanon," the statement added.
The representative for Mr Annan, who spoke with the prime ministers of Israel and Lebanon following the attack, said the UN chief was calling on all parties "to respect strictly the arms embargo, exercise maximum restraint, avoid provocative actions and display responsibility in implementing resolution 1701".
Israel insisted yesterday that it had not violated the ceasefire in Lebanon by launching the raid, which it claimed was designed to disrupt weapons supplies to Hizbullah coming from Iran and Syria, as called for by the UN security council resolution.
Accusing Hizbullah of breaking the terms of the truce by smuggling weapons from its supporters, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said: "We had specific information of arms transfers taking place and we acted to prevent that violation, so that violation is not from the Israeli side, we were responding to a violation of the resolution by Hizbullah".
Meanwhile Lebanon, which has begun to send its troops into southern Lebanon to help supervise the ceasefire deal, warned that it might halt the deployment after the country's prime minister Fouad Siniora denounced the Israeli raid as a "naked violation" of the UN-backed truce.
Such a move would prove devastating to the UN's plan to achieve a sustainable peace in the region, with the Lebanese army set to assist an expanded international force of up to 15,000 peacekeepers in maintaining the ceasefire between Israel and Hizbullah.
Meanwhile, the first reinforcements to join the existing UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon arrived yesterday, amid hopes that an advance contingent of some 3,500 soldiers will be deployed in the region by the end of August.
Forty-nine French soldiers, mostly engineers, disembarked at the southern port of Naqoura yesterday, part of the 200-strong contingent pledged by France for the strengthened UN force.