The United States and Lebanon said on Friday a deal on a United Nations resolution to end Israel’s month-old war with Hezbollah guerrillas is in sight.
”We are now very, very close to agreement and our aspiration to have a vote at the end of the afternoon remains,” Washington’s UN envoy John Bolton told reporters.
A senior Lebanese political source said Lebanese leaders had made significant progress in talks with a top US official in Beirut.
”There is serious and major progress that could lead to an understanding in the next few hours. There are no more basic sticking points,” the source said, without giving details.
The source was speaking after talks that US Assistant Secretary of State David Welch held with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shi’ite politician who has negotiated on Hezbollah’s behalf.
But Israel told the US it would not automatically accept any such resolution, Israeli television said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also ordered the army to expand its ground offensive into Lebanon on Friday, asserting there was a lack of progress in UN talks on a truce, political sources said.
”We said two days ago that we would stop the fire, either militarily or diplomatically,” an Israeli political source said. ”We see that the ceasefire deal in the UN is not making the required progress, and therefore we have authorised the military action.”
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to New York to try clinch agreement on a deal to stop the war, in which at least 1 026 people in Lebanon and 123 Israelis have been killed.
”We are pushing to get this done today [Friday]. We think we should be able to,” said State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett were also expected to join efforts to get a US-French draft resolution adopted.
However, there was no let-up in the violence in Lebanon and Israel. Air raids killed another 15 people in Lebanon. An Israeli soldier was reported killed in fighting and Hezbollah rockets wounded seven people in northern Israel.
Air strikes
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 one in south Lebanon, medical sources said.
An Israeli soldier was killed and one was badly wounded in fighting with Hezbollah 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.
Hezbollah, 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.
UN and other convoys have been unable to deliver supplies since an Israeli air strike hit a Litani river bridge on Monday.
The US-French draft resolution calls for a ”cessation of hostilities”. Lebanon wants a quick Israeli pullout, but Israel says a strong multinational force must be deployed first.
The latest compromise calls for a phased Israeli withdrawal as the Lebanese army moves into the south. At the same time, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, known as Unifil, would be reinforced by up to 15 000 French and other troops.
Range of issues
As part of the deal, Hezbollah would pull out from south of the Litani River, 20km from the Israeli border.
A second resolution on a permanent ceasefire would follow within a month, tackling a range of outstanding issues, including the release of the two soldiers held by Hezbollah.
Israel will reserve the right to re-enter Lebanon in future if the proposed UN force fails to stop Hezbollah fighters from returning to the border, a top military official said on Friday.
In Marjayoun, a Christian town occupied by Israeli forces on Thursday, Unifil troops were trying to evacuate about 350 Lebanese soldiers and police officers from the local barracks under an agreement with the Israelis, officials said.
”However, it seems that all the roads leading from Marjayoun are destroyed or blocked and it is not possible to leave the area at this time,” Unifil spokesperson Milos Strugar said.
Many of the estimated 3 000 people left in Marjayoun and nearby Qlaiah wanted to join the evacuation to the southern city of Sidon and hundreds of cars gathered near the army barracks.
”We have no running water, no electricity and we are running out of food. We have one bag of bread left,” resident Rana Daher told Reuters by telephone. — Reuters