Lebanon resolution needed ‘without delay’
A UN resolution on Lebanon must be agreed “without delay” to ensure an end to hostilities in the Middle East, Tony Blair has said.
As the Lebanese death toll reached 1,000 last night, the prime minister said that while Lebanese concerns about the draft agreement would be dealt with, the most important thing would be to stop the fighting between Israel and Hizbullah.
“The main thing now is to get this resolution agreed – we don’t want to delay any more. it will call for the cessation of hostilities that everybody, including me, have wanted from the outset,” Mr Blair said.
He continued: “I think we can achieve what the Lebanese government wants to see as well as what the Israeli government wants to see, which is the government of Lebanon back in full charge of its own territory without us leaving a vacuum in which the Hizbullah militia can move in.”
Representatives from the Arab League are in New York today to urge the UN security council to revise its draft resolution to take account of Beirut’s concerns that the agreement would not see an immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops.
The Lebanese government yesterday agreed to deploy 15,000 troops to take over in southern Lebanon following a halting of hostilities, if Israel withdrew.
However, Israel insists it will only pull out if it is immediately replaced by an international peace force, and US president George Bush has also said that a “vacuum” cannot be allowed to emerge in the area which would allow Hizbullah to rearm.
Speaking to the BBC this morning, Mr Blair said he “totally” understood why the Arab League wanted to put these concerns to the UN security council, and said the members “must take account reasonably of what those are”.
He said the issue of a Lebanese force in southern Lebanon would be discussed, “but we are going to need to make sure that it’s internationally verified”. Israel argues that Beirut was in charge of policing the area since it withdrew in 2000, but failed to stop Hizbullah.
“The important thing is that we can’t have a vacuum – the governments of Israel and Lebanon want the same thing, a proper democratic Lebanese government back in charge of its country,” Mr Blair said.
He had delayed his holiday to work for a resolution, and in the past few days has held conversations with Mr Bush, Russian president Vladimir Putin, UN secretary general Kofi Annan, French president Jacques Chirac and Lebanese prime minister Fuad Sinora.
The prime minister is now set to fly out to join his family in the Caribbean today, but stressed he would continue to take part in discussions leading up to a vote on a UN resolution later this week.
“The fact is this is going to move to New York now where diplomats will try to agree resolution, but I will keep in touch with this the entire time,” Mr Blair said.
“With a situation like this it’s sufficiently serious that I’m always gong to be engaged in talking to other leaders.”
