UN’s Lebanon Resolution Rejected by Lebanon

The cries of delight from Washington (and Crawford, Texas) reverberated across the Sunday morning talk shows. The US and France had cobbled together a UN Security Council resolution that would end the fighting in Lebanon. “Hurray! America and France make peace!” the talking heads jabbered, “It’s peace in our time!” The mood was dampened by the unhelpful attitude of the Lebanese, who happen to be doing the lion’s share of the bleeding and dying. Maybe someone should have invited them to the peace talks.

The draft resolution that the US and France (neither of which has lost a single citizen in the fighting as best as this journal can tell) want to offer the Security Council wouldn’t actually require the Israelis to give back any of the Lebanese land they have under occupation. The Lebanese government, quite rightly, says that without the withdrawal of Israeli troops to Israel, resistance must be expected. Indeed, getting the Israelis out of Lebanon after the 1982 attack was Hezbollah’s initial mission.

Of course, the Security Council responded like 19th century imperialists. France's UN ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere explained that Sunday’s talks among the big shots on UNSC “were focused, for the most part, on the concerns of [Lebanese Prime Minister] Fouad Siniora. We must take into consideration everyone's concerns, while keeping the text's logic.” In other words, the deal’s made and the Lebanese can worry about where commas go, but otherwise, they’re just being obstructionists.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin proved his country’s policy is no better. “Our concern was that the Lebanese government seems to be unhappy with the draft resolution,” he said. Fair enough. So, when Mr. Siniora offered some amendments to a text he called “unimplementable,” what was the Russian response? Mr. Churkin observed that Mr. Siniora had moved “pretty far” from the draft resolution, and his amendments weren’t going to work. He explained, “In a case like that it is pretty hard to go far from the text which has been negotiated.”

The sponsors of the draft claim they consulted with the Israeli and Lebanese governments in working out their text. Maybe they did, but it is hard to see how they paid any attention to Mr. Siniora if he is calling their draft unworkable. Starting over wouldn’t be a bad idea at this point. Of course, that would upset the new friendship and esteem the French and Americans have for one another, so that won’t happen. However, it might be useful to have negotiations among affected parties as well as among members of the Security Council.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home