JERUSALEM – Israel and the United States yesterday reacted favorably to a Lebanese plan to deploy 15,000 troops in the south of the country when Israeli forces withdraw.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose Cabinet is expected today to approve pushing deeper into Lebanon, said the plan is “an interesting step which we have to study and examine.
“The faster we leave south Lebanon, the happier we will be, especially if we have achieved our goals,” he said.
Olmert added that Lebanese troops should be accompanied by a strong international force and that Hezbollah, whose guerrillas have been battling Israel for 28 days, must be disarmed.
The deployment plan, announced Monday night, was supported by the two Hezbollah members in the Lebanese Cabinet, a sign the guerrilla group wants a lasting peace.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the plan “certainly is a significant proposal.”
But McCormack said the Lebanese forces “would need to be supported by international forces” because Lebanon’s army isn’t strong enough to subdue Hezbollah by itself.
“They are not, at this point, a robust enough entity to be able to, on their own, exercise total control of that southern area of Lebanon. That’s why you have the need for an international force,” he said.
McCormack said the plan probably will be incorporated into the cease-fire resolution being hammered out at the United Nations.
After Lebanon and other Arab nations sharply attacked the first draft of the resolution, the United States and France decided to delay introducing a new draft until the Security Council heard yesterday from a three-member Arab League delegation.
Because Security Council rules require 24 hours to pass before a vote on a resolution, the vote probably won’t take place until tomorrow at the earliest.
“It is most saddening that the council stands idly by, crippled, unable to stop the bloodbath which has become the bitter daily lot of the defenseless Lebanese people,” the delegation leader, Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani, told the council.
The diplomatic wrangling came on a day of these developments in the conflict:
* Israeli air raids killed 14 people and wounded 23 in the southern Lebanese village of Ghaziyeh.
The bombs fell five minutes after a funeral procession of 1,500 mourners had passed by on its way to bury 15 people killed in a raid on the village Monday.
The first missile struck a building, killing one person and wounding five. The blast was close enough to send mourners screaming, “Allah Akbar!” or “God is great!” Some broke away from the procession, while others continued on.
Half an hour later, Israeli warplanes staged four more bombing runs, destroying two buildings. Another 13 people were killed and 18 wounded.
* Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni ripped into Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, who wept Monday when he described his country’s plight.
“Yesterday I saw the tears of Siniora. We all cry over our dead, whether in public or in private,” Livni told the Israeli parliament.
“This is the place to tell him to wipe away his tears and start working to create a better future, a more normal future for those civilians for whom he is crying,” she said.
* Israel named a new commander for the war effort, effectively demoting another general after criticism of the army’s handling of the war.
With Post Wire Services