U.S. presses Lebanon to bow to UN ruling
WASHINGTON - The United States is pressuring Beirut to accept the UN
ruling confirming Israel's troop withdrawal from Lebanese soil as complete, in
an American drive both to pave the way for deployment of UN peacekeepers and to
foster the Middle East peace process.
Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright telephoned
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud several times to discuss the withdrawal, even
calling in the pre-dawn hours.
Syrian and Lebanese obstacles to stabilizing south Lebanon have sparked
fury among officials in Washington, who had hoped the UN's explicit, on-site
determination of a full withdrawal would see UN peacekeepers deploy swiftly
along the border.
"It's a game," a U.S. source told Ha'aretz.
Lebanon countered that Israel still holds "pockets" of its
territory in six areas. Lahoud denied reports that following his talks with
Albright, the Beirut government had agreed to accept the UN position. He called
the current border a "deceitful line," declaring that Lebanon would
refuse to recognize this line instead of the line it viewed as the legitimate
international border.
Lebanon demands that its own experts must study the border in its entirety
before any recognition is forthcoming. But Lebanon left the door open to a
solution, promising to cooperate with UN personnel in inspecting the withdrawal
line.
Lebanese and UN cartographers set out on foot yesterday to inspect some
of the disputed points along the border.
The Lebanese opposition has spurred Russia to ask the Security Council
for a further delay in a declaration supporting UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan's confirmation of a full Israeli withdrawal. France supports Russia's
position that UN peacekeepers cannot be deployed on the border so long as
Lebanon rejects Annan's statement.
Annan, meanwhile, heard additional complaints over the withdrawal ruling
during talks with Iranian leaders in Tehran, the first stop of a Middle East
swing to include Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Syria.
Official sources quoted Iranian supreme spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as telling Annan that "the conflict between Lebanon and Israel is not over, because the Zionist entity has yet to withdraw from all Lebanese territory.