U.S., France Near Agreement on U.N. Draft
Israel Reportedly Oks Expanded Ground Offensive

By Colum Lynch and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 11, 2006 1:15 PM

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 11 -- The United States and France neared agreement Friday on a resolution that would call for a halt to violence and authorize the deployment of thousands of Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.

"We are very, very close to agreement and our aspiration to have a vote at the end of the afternoon remains," said John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

France's U.N. ambassador Jean Marc de La Sabliere said "we are close" to agreement.

Meanwhile, in Israel, a government spokesman said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had given the green light for an expanded ground war in Lebanon, the Associated Press reported. It was not immediately clear how the news would impact diplomacy at the United Nations.

An Israeli diplomat in Washington said his country is getting frustrated with the prolonged diplomacy as Hezbollah's attacks -- including a rocket strike today in Haifa -- continue. "As this thing is being drawn out and our troops are in danger, we need to improve the situation on the ground," the diplomat said. "Haifa was attacked. We have to take steps to defend ourselves."

Friday's diplomatic advances followed Lebanon's objection on Thursday to a U.S. and French proposal to enlarge a U.N. peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon and give it the authority under a provision of the U.N. Charter, known as Chapter 7, to use force to implement its mandate.

Friday morning, the U.S. and France settled on a compromise that would grant U.N. peacekeepers a somewhat less forceful mandate to restore calm and help thousands of Lebanese soldiers take control of a buffer zone between the two countries.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy flew to New York Friday to assist in the negotiations. British foreign secretary Margaret Beckett arrived in New York Thursday night.

On Friday, Assistant Secretary of State David Welch returned to Beirut for the third time to talk through the new draft with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser, the U.N ambassador from Qatar, which represents the Arab world in the Security Council, said "I'm sure we will have a new language which maybe it will satisfy the Lebanese." He said the U.S. and France were now pressing Israel and Lebanon to accept it.

"We want a Security Council resolution that is as strong as possible," said the Israeli diplomat in Washington. "Will a force be there to monitor or to enforce a peace? We think Chapter 7 [authorizing force] is more appropriate. The mandate has to have teeth." U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan urged the council to approve a resolution today, saying "It's time for decision. Each day that the discussions go on, the death, the killings and the destruction continues in the region, and civilians on both sides suffer."

Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said that if the U.S. and France failed to reach agreement today he would call for a vote on a Russian resolution urging the warring parties to observe a 72 hour "humanitarian truce."

Siniora has expressed concerns to Annan about whether he could persuade Hezbollah to accept the draft resolution, according to U.N. officials. Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh told al-Jazeera Thursday that the resolution as it stood did not resolve a number of Lebanese concerns, including Beirut's call for Israeli forces to withdraw immediately.

"Negotiations are still going on," Lebanese Chargé d'Affaires Carla Jazzar said. "No one said this resolution has been refused. It's not over yet at all," she said.

The United States had clashed earlier this week with France over the mandate of an international force for Lebanon. But U.S. and French diplomats sounded upbeat Thursday as they worked to overcome differences over language that would choreograph Israel's gradual withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the U.N.-backed Lebanese army's deployment there.

"We're making progress, and it's entirely possible we could have a vote tomorrow," John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday morning after meeting his French counterpart, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere. "We've closed some of the areas of disagreement with the French."

The threat of Israeli ground action has heightened the sense of urgency in concluding weeks of contentious negotiations over a plan to end the violence. "We're pushing for a vote. [Rice] doesn't care if they have to work through the night" to prepare for a Friday vote, said a senior U.S. official. "If work needs to be done, she'll do that. If she needs to bring it to closure, she'll close. And if she only needs to vote, she'll vote."

The breakthrough in negotiations with France came after the United States dropped its demand that Israeli troops be allowed to remain in southern Lebanon until a muscular international force is in place with a tough mandate to ensure that Hezbollah could not mount attacks on Israeli towns. Washington also agreed to scrap a provision that the force be explicitly authorized to disarm Hezbollah.

The United States and France had agreed Thursdaythat the force could be authorized to use military firepower to help Beirut restore its control over southern Lebanon. The enlarged U.N. mission would be authorized to do that under a provision of the U.N. Charter, known as Chapter 7, that permits peacekeepers to use force to implement their mission.

China's deputy ambassador, Liu Zhenmin, said that "the problem is that the Lebanese they do not accept any reference to Chapter 7."

The draft resolution envisions an international force that could be close to parity with the 15,000 Lebanese troops to be deployed in the south, U.S. and French officials said. Although it will come under the auspices of the controversial U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which has been deployed there since 1978, it will be much more muscular.

"Everyone says UNIFIL. It would be a UNIFIL8 force in name only. Its nature, composition and mandate would be different. It's the difference between Clark Kent and Superman," said the senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing diplomacy.

Israel's ambassador, Dan Gillerman, had previously derided UNIFIL as "impotent" and "useless" at restraining Hezbollah from shelling Israeli civilians. But he told Israel Channel 1 television that the new U.N. force "will be completely different from the blue helmets we know today." He said that "a number of European countries have voiced their agreement to be part of this force."

U.S. diplomats visited Siniora's Ottoman-era headquarters in Beirut several times Thursday for consultations.

"We've talked about the issues of Israeli withdrawal and the timing of the Lebanese armed forces, as well as the international forces, taking over that territory," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said from Washington. "It's important to get this right, because it's one thing to have words on the piece of paper and it's another thing to have those words be able to be implemented in a way that is effective and gets you to the solution that you want to get to."

Wright reported from Washington.