United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday he hoped for word on the lifting of an Israeli blockade on Lebanon within two days as the shape of a carefully orchestrated deal involving France, Italy and Germany emerged.
In Egypt Annan said he hoped the next 48 hours would bring ”positive” news on the lifting of the Israeli embargo imposed on Lebanon’s ports and airport since July 13, the day after Hezbollah sparked a 34-day war by seizing two Israeli soldiers.
A spokesperson for French President Jacques Chirac said France had agreed ”in principle” to a request from the UN for the French navy to help monitor the Lebanese coast.
A Lebanese political source said the Beirut government has prepared a letter asking the UN to help patrol its coast, but will not send it until Israel has lifted its restrictions on flights in and out of Beirut.
Once that happens and the letter has gone, French and Italian naval ships would deploy off the Lebanese coast, meeting an Israeli demand for measures to stop Hezbollah rearming.
Five days later, Israel would lift its sea blockade, the Lebanese source said. Germany, which has offered a naval force, would eventually take over the French and Italian naval role.
”This is our understanding, but the Israelis are still dragging their feet,” the source said. ”We are not sure when this will go into effect.”
Israel earlier reiterated that the blockade will stay in place until Hezbollah was prevented from rearming.
”Israel will be able to allow unfettered access into Lebanon when the Lebanese army, augmented by the international forces, will be able to enforce the arms embargo on Hezbollah,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mark Regev said.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701 bans illegal arms shipments to Lebanon, but says UN forces can only help secure the Lebanese coast and border with Syria at Beirut’s request.
Annan optimistic
Annan expressed optimism that the deadlock over the blockade will be broken soon, but gave no details of any deal.
”I don’t want to raise any false hopes, but I hope that in the next 48 hours we will have some news on that, constructive, positive news,” he said after meeting President Hosni Mubarak in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria.
Lebanon is proposing that its tiny navy and coastguard, backed by army helicopters, patrol up to six nautical miles off the coast, leaving UN-mandated ships to guard the remaining six miles of territorial waters, the political source said.
In the south, Lebanese troops moved into the shattered Shi’ite Muslim town of Bint Jbeil, the scene of some of the fiercest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
”We are very happy. No one can replace the state,” said 55-year-old Jamila Shami, who had been waiting with a Lebanese flag and a bag of rice to shower the troops with.
The army has taken over about 80% of south Lebanon since it began deploying there just three days after a truce halted the 34-day war on August 14, a military source said.
Lebanese troops have been taking over positions that departing Israeli forces have handed over to the UN peacekeeping force, Unifil, in a staged withdrawal.
Annan has said Israel should complete its pull-out from Lebanon once there are 5 000 UN peacekeepers on the ground, a target a Unifil spokesperson said could be met in 10 to 14 days.
The UN force is set to reach an eventual 15 000 and will work alongside a similar number of Lebanese troops in a southern zone to be free of any Israeli or armed Hezbollah presence.
Unifil’s mandate does not include disarming the Shi’ite guerrillas, whose leader was quoted on Tuesday as saying they will maintain a clandestine presence, but will not fire rockets at Israel and will only respond to a major attack.
”The situation in south Lebanon will return to the stability it has seen in the last six years except … that the army will now be in charge of facing the Israeli violations and not the resistance,” Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah told the As-Safir daily.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Ankara to urge Turkey’s Parliament to reject government plans to send hundreds of troops to join the UN mission in Lebanon.
The Turkish Parliament is expected to approve the deployment in a vote later on Tuesday but many in Turkey fear the UN force will mainly serve Israeli and US interests and that soldiers may have to fire at fellow Muslims. The left is also opposed. — Reuters