VARIOUS: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says forces battling not just Hizbollah but Iran, Syria too

Facing sharp Arab criticism, the United States and France on Monday (August 7, 2006) worked on changes to a draft U.N. resolution to end the Israeli-Hizbollah conflict, and a vote was likely to be delayed until at least Wednesday (August 9). U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters after a session with his French counterpart, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, "We're still talking about possible changes we can make based on developments in Lebanon today." Beirut's acting foreign minister, Tareq Mitri, briefed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Lebanese cabinet decision to send 15,000 troops into the South. He told reporters: "The decision has been taken unanimously in the Council of Ministers, two council members representing Hizbollah agreed to it. There is a unanimity in the country that may not have existed before. But there is a unanimity in the country about giving the Lebanese army a chance to exercise its duty and responsibility. There is great confidence in the army in the country. The army is the national army, It's nobody's army, it's the army of the Lebanese people and finally it's able to exercise its role as the legitimate authority of our government of Lebanon to areas where it has not before." Bolton said he thought the Beirut government's decision to deploy troops in the South was a positive development. Ghanaian Ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng, the current Security Council president, said the 15-member body would hold a meeting on Tuesday with Arab League representatives traveling to the United Nations to press for amendments. The session makes it unlikely the council will vote before Wednesday. The draft resolution calls for a "full cessation of hostilities" and says Hizbollah must stop all attacks while Israel must halt "offensive military operations." It asks U.N. peacekeepers to monitor the truce and lays down principles for a permanent settlement. A second resolution is to follow authorising an international force, which France is expected to lead once fighting stops. The council is under pressure to adopt a resolution quickly. It would be its first since fighting began after Hizbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers on July 12. At least 925 Lebanese and 94 Israelis have been killed. Meanwhile, Israel threatened to expand ground operations against Hizbollah if diplomatic efforts to end the war remained stalled, apparently putting pressure on Beirut to accept the resolution quickly. Israel also launched an emergency campaign to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from Jewish communities to aid the Israeli home front. On an Internet broadcast to the United Jewish Communities (UCJ) -Federations of North America Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called for solidarity among the Jewish people and stressed that the fighting is not just against the Hizbollah but against Iran and Syria. "I know you are all thinking we are fighting against Hizbollah. But let's face it, the State of Israel is fighting against the Iranians and the Syrians, who are using the Hizbullah in order to attack Israel from the north. This is a very difficult war, for the first time almost in the entire life of the state of Israel not just the soldiers fight, the entire country fights," he said. Israeli air raids killed at least 55 people on Monday, making it one of deadliest days for Lebanon in the 28-day-long war between Israel and Shi'ite group Hizbollah. Olmert said that Israel consider the killings of civilians a failure but accused Hizbollah, Syria and Iran of considering it a success. Late on Monday, the Israeli army released a video showing what the army claims is an Israeli aircraft shooting down an unmanned spy plane launched by Hizbollah as it entered Israeli territory. The drone was spotted by the air force's monitoring unit and fighter planes were scrambled to intercept it, an Israeli military spokesman said. The spokesman said a fighter plane shot the drone down 10 km (six miles) off Israel's coast, northwest of the city of Haifa. An Israeli military source added that it was an Iranian-made drone with a range of about 150 km. The spokesman said it appeared that the drone was not armed, but added further checks were being made of its remains. It was the third time in the past two years that Hizbollah has tried to fly a drone over Israel. The most recent incident was in April 2005, when an unmanned plane flew over the Western Galilee region before returning to Lebanon.

ITN Source | August 8, 2006

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