U.S. Considers Additional U.N. Resolution To Disarm Hezbollah
21 August 2006
Bush says need for international force in Lebanon urgent
United Nations -- The United States is considering an additional U.N. Security Council resolution clarifying the mandate of the U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon to include the disarming of Hezbollah, President George Bush said August 21.
At a press conference in Washington, President Bush said the need for an international force in Lebanon is urgent. (See related article.)
The force will help ensure the cease-fire holds, help the Lebanese army secure its borders and stop Hezbollah from acting as a state within a state, and give the displaced in both Lebanon and Israel the confidence to return home, the president said.
"An international force requires international commitment," he continued. "The international community must now designate the leadership of this new international force, give it robust rules of engagement, and deploy it as quickly as possible to secure the peace."
The United States will provide logistic support, command and control, communications and intelligence, Bush said. The United States plans to work with the U.N. force once it is deployed "to ensure that the United States is doing all we can to make this mission a success."
Asked if the United States would demand that the peacekeepers disarm Hezbollah, the president said "there will be another resolution coming out of the United Nations, giving further instructions to the international force."
Under Resolution 1701, which was passed by the Security Council on August 11, the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is to be expanded from the current level of 2,000 troops to 15,000. (See related article.)
Vigorous efforts are under way quickly to deploy U.N. peacekeepers to cement the fragile, weeklong cease-fire in southern Lebanon. U.N. officials have met with more than 70 potential troop-contributing countries to outline the specific rules of engagement in an effort to get 3,500 to 7,000 troops on the ground by August 28.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary-General Kofi Annan is confident he will get the troops needed. "He has to knock on doors, but we are confident we will get them," he said.
DISARMING HEZBOLLAH KEY TO PEACE IN LEBANON, BOLTON SAYS
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said that "timing here remains critical. There's no question about it."
Bolton said "we should keep our eye focused on the objective, which is that the combined efforts of the government of Lebanon and UNIFIL in southern Lebanon should result in the government of Israel being able to withdraw and no security vacuum being created by these parallel operations -- no security vacuum into which Hezbollah can re-infiltrate."
"As long as Hezbollah fighters remain armed in the south or elsewhere in the country -- whether the arms are visible or are hidden under mattresses -- the international peacekeeping force ... will be vulnerable if Hezbollah orders additional attacks," he said.
Countries deciding whether to send their soldiers into such a dangerous situation want to be sure that their troops will have the maximum opportunity to defend themselves, the ambassador added.
Bolton said that disarming Hezbollah, which is key to establishing the government of Lebanon's control over the entire territory and a stable peace in the region, was not specifically addressed in Resolution 1701.
"Disarming Hezbollah ... was going to have to be addressed if not in the first resolution [1701], in due course. So that's one of the elements we're working on," he said. "That should be coming shortly."
Resolution 1701 specifically says that the council would consider changes and enhancements to an expanded UNIFIL, Bolton pointed out. "So the question of dealing with Hezbollah, or whether they deal with themselves by becoming a real political party instead of a terrorist group, is obviously on the agenda. But there is no timetable," he said.
Bolton said that there is no reason why the second resolution should hold up UNIFIL deployment.
The "road map" for Lebanon is the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for disarming all militias in Lebanon, the ambassador said. "If 1559 had been fully implemented, we probably wouldn't be here today. And that's why … preventing the re-supply of Hezbollah is so important."
The United Nations has troop commitments from Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Nepal, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown said August 18. But he appealed to Europe to provide troops for the first deployment so that UNIFIL will have a "multinational, multilateral character so that it enjoys the confidence of both sides."
U.N. spokesman Dujarric said U.N. officials set out the rules of engagement according to Security Council Resolution 1701.
UNIFIL will not go in as an offensive force, but to police a political accord, Dujarric said. However, it will have "the authority to use force where combatants forcefully resist demands from UNIFIL to disarm. It will have authority to use force in its duties" to implement the resolution.
For further information, see Middle East and North Africa.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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