UNITED NATIONS, Aug 7: As efforts to adopt a resolution to halt fighting in Lebanon wavered, diplomats here announced that envoys from the Arab states would address the 15-member UN Security Council on Tuesday and express serious concern over elements in the US-France draft which, they believe, favours Israel heavily.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa will meet Security Council envoys along with Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahayan and Shaikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabber Al Thani, foreign ministers of UAE and Qatar respectively.
On Monday, US Ambassador John Bolton and French envoy Jean Marie-De-Sabliere agreed to delay a Council meeting in order to hear from the Arab envoys.
The Security Council, despite enormous pressure to take action in a war that has raged unchecked for 26 days, failed to hold an expected meeting on Monday to discuss the measure and schedule a vote.
The US and France had announced agreement on the draft on Saturday, but plunged into renewed negotiations to meet objections to crucial terms of the proposal offered in amendments by Lebanon and Qatar - the Arab representative on the Council.
The stalling of progress at the United Nations reflected an outpouring of condemnation across the Middle East, demonstrating a conviction that the proposed resolution spoke to all of Israel’s demands, backed by the US, without addressing those of Hezbollah.
On Monday, US President George W. Bush resisted a demand by Lebanon that Israeli troops immediately withdraw from southern Lebanon, saying it could create a vacuum and allow Hezbollah guerrillas to rearm.
Bush told reporters he wanted a UN Security Council resolution as quickly as possible, calling for a cessation to hostilities in the nearly month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.
But he did not welcome a Lebanese demand that Israeli forces withdraw immediately from southern Lebanon.
“Whatever happens in the UN, we must not create a vacuum into which Hezbollah and its sponsors are able to move more weapons,” Bush said.
ISRAELI ATTACKS: At least 53 civilians were killed on Monday in a wave of Israeli bombing raids against villages in southern and eastern Lebanon, police said, adds AFP.
Eight people were killed on Monday evening when the Israeli military launched two fresh strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a rescue worker with the Lebanese Red Cross said.
The bombardments targeted the Shiyah district of the southern suburbs which until now has been spared attacks and was still inhabited by some residents.
An AFP photographer said a three-storey building had collapsed. A neighbouring building had also been sliced in two while a fire was raging in a nearby mosque.
Israeli warplanes had earlier pounded southern suburbs of Beirut earlier as dawn broke.
The fighter-bombers carried out five raids in less than an hour attacking with bombs and air-to-ground missiles, causing huge clouds of black smoke to billow over the suburbs.
One civilian was killed and seven wounded in Israeli strikes on the village of Shmistar in the easter Baalbek region, a security source said.
In a separate strike on the Baalbeck region 10 people were killed and 23 wounded in the nearby Brital village, officials from the Lebanese civil defence said.