A Hizbollah fighter looks through a pair of binoculars from his position in Aitaroun village, south Lebanon August 16, 2006. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho
Posted on 08/16/2006 9:51:55 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese troops began deploying south of the strategic Litani River early Thursday, a senior military official said, after the Israeli army stepped up its withdrawal from the south Lebanon region and handed over some of its positions to U.N. peacekeepers.
The rapid developments aimed at ending 34 days of fighting came after Lebanon's government agreed Wednesday to deploy troops near Israel's border for the first time in 40 years.
A senior official in the Lebanese army told The Associated Press around dawn Thursday that Lebanese troops, backed by tanks and other armored vehicles, had begun arriving south of the river in line with the U.N. cease-fire plan. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to make statements to the media.
An Associated Press reporter saw about 40 military trucks and jeeps, carrying soldiers, equipment, luggage and plastic water tanks, heading through central Beirut on their way to south Lebanon at around 4 a.m. Lebanese flags were mounted on the vehicles.
The Lebanese army had also been assembling north of the Litani River, 18 miles from the Israeli border.
The Lebanese Cabinet decision fell short of agreement on disarming the Hezbollah militant group, which has insisted it has the right to defend Lebanese territory as long as Israeli troops remain in the country.
More than half the area Israel holds in Lebanon has been transferred to the U.N. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL, the Israeli army said, adding the process would occur in stages and would depend on a stronger U.N. force as well as "the ability of the Lebanese army to take effective control of the area."
The army said it was the first time it had handed over territory to the United Nations, although it had redeployed some of its forces previously.
By Thursday morning, all Israeli reservists had left Lebanon and only regular troops were still patrolling there, Israel TV's Channel Two reported. The Israeli military could not immediately confirm the report, but said the plan was for all reservists to be out of Lebanon very soon.
The cease-fire plan calls for the 2,000-member U.N. force to increase to 15,000 and to be joined eventually by an equal number of Lebanese to assume control as Israeli forces withdraw.
Before dawn Thursday, several hundred Israeli soldiers crossed back over the border into Israel. Some smiled, sang and rejoiced, while others just looked relieved to be out. One soldier sat down and cried, his head buried in his arms, after reaching Israel again.
Many said they had little faith that UNIFIL and the Lebanese army would be able to rein in Hezbollah.
"I ... hope so, but if we have to come back we'll come back and we'll do it again," said John Braun, a military doctor.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said completion of the Israeli pullout depended on the presence of both the Lebanese army and an international force. She also said she wanted the international force to help monitor the border to prevent Iran and Syria from replenishing Hezbollah's weapons.
"If there is a place that Israel can withdraw from and the Lebanese army can come, plus international forces, we'll do it," Livni said after meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York. "But if it takes time until the international forces are organized, it takes time until Israel withdraws. This is the equation."
Israel had as many as 30,000 troops in southern Lebanon during the conflict that began July 12 when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the Israeli chief of staff, said earlier Wednesday that Israeli soldiers would stay in southern Lebanon for months, if necessary.
Despite continued division over disarming Hezbollah, the Cabinet decision to deploy Lebanese troops was a major step toward meeting demands that the guerrillas be removed from Israel's northern frontier. It would also mark the extension of government sovereignty over the whole country for the first time since 1969, when the Lebanese government sanctioned Palestinian cross-border attacks on Israel.
The Lebanese government, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, met for the first time since the cease-fire took hold Monday, after two postponements because of divisions over Hezbollah's arms. The guerrillas have resisted pressure to give them up or even withdraw them from the border area.
"There will be no confrontation between the army and brothers in Hezbollah," Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said. "That is not the army's mission."
"There will be no authority or weapons other than those of the state," Aridi said. "If any weapon is found, even the brothers in Hezbollah have said 'Let it be in the hands of the army. No problem.'"
Hezbollah's top official in south Lebanon hinted that the guerrillas would not disarm or withdraw but would keep its weapons out of sight. Hezbollah will have "no visible military presence," Sheik Nabil Kaouk told reporters in the southern port city of Tyre.
Hezbollah has used charity work and social welfare programs financed by Iran to win wide support throughout Lebanon.
The Shiite Muslim militant group continued that tradition Wednesday, saying it would help tens of thousands of Lebanese reconstruct homes that were destroyed by Israel, a move likely to deepen support among Shiites, who make up about 35 percent of Lebanon's 4 million people.
At a Beirut high school, Hezbollah officials took information from hundreds of people who need money to rebuild. The group's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has promised money for civilians to pay rent and even buy furniture.
The Lebanese death toll, meanwhile, rose to 842 when rescue workers pulled 32 bodies from the rubble in the southern town of Srifa, target of some of Israel's heaviest bombardment in the 34-day conflict. The figure was assembled from reports by security and police officials, doctors, civil defense workers, morgue attendants and the military.
The Israeli toll was 157, including 118 soldiers, according to its military and government.
Foreign diplomats worked to assemble the international force that will augment the current 2,000-member U.N. peacekeepers, known as UNIFIL, who have been in the area for more than two decades. The U.N. hopes 3,500 international troops can reinforce the contingent already on the ground within 10 to 15 days, Assistant U.N. Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Hedi Annabi said.
French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said France is willing to lead the enlarged U.N. force until at least February.
___
Associated Press reporters Hussein Dakroub and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, Kathy Gannon in Tyre, Lebanon, Gavin Rabinowitz in Jerusalem and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
A Hizbollah fighter looks through a pair of binoculars from his position in Aitaroun village, south Lebanon August 16, 2006. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho
The puppet show has begun.
Lebanese Brig. Adnan Daoud, left, talks to a U.N. peacekeeper in the southern town of Marjayoun, Lebanon, in this picture taken Friday, Aug. 12, 2006. Daoud was ordered arrested Wednesday Aug 16 2006 for appearing in a videotape drinking tea with Israeli soldiers who had occupied his south Lebanon barracks during their incursion of the country .Lebanese law forbids any dealings with Israel. (AP Photo)
Israeli soldiers are given red roses on their return from the Israel-Lebanon border in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona. Lebanon was poised to start deploying government troops to Hezbollah's longtime bastion in the south as Israel announced its forces had began pulling back following its month-long conflict with the Shiite militant group.(AFP/Denis Sinyakov)
---"There will be no confrontation between the army and brothers in Hezbollah," Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said. ---
Other than the usual Arab kissy-face stuff...
A Lebanese man looks out from his destroyed apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2006 Tens of thousands of people have returned to their shattered villages in eastern and southern Lebanon as well as Beirut's southern suburbs to find their homes either damaged or totally destroyed in a month of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)
So, let me see if I have this right:
The Israeli army is pulling back to their own borders.
Hizbullah is refusing to disarm.
Iran is refusing to stop arming Hizbullah.
The Lebanese army is getting along just fine with Hizbullah.
The Lebanese army is lining up on Israel's northern border.
The Syrian army is lining up on Israel's eastern border, and pulling up their own minefields.
This is supposed to be a good thing? At this point, we might as well encourage Jimmy Carter to show up and help Israel's PM coordinate everything. Even our dumbest ex-prez couldn't screw anything up as bad as their clown has!
seems more like a counterattack than a ceasefire when you put it that way.
You know? I didn't think of it that way. I wonder when the fighting starts and the Israelis go back into Lebanon, will the Lebanese army retreat to the Hezzy's bunkers?
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