U.S.: Fighting Unlikely to End Soon

[Omaha Steve]

Full story: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060806/D8JB4JNG0.html

U.S.: Fighting Unlikely to End Soon
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Aug 6, 3:58 PM (ET)

By NEDRA PICKLER

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - Top Bush administration officials said Sunday they expect the U.N. Security Council to vote on a cease-fire resolution for the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict soon, but warn it's unlikely to end violence immediately.

The U.S. officials who helped negotiate the draft resolution described it as the first step to try to solve a long-standing problem - militant Hezbollah forces operating a sort of "state-within-a-state" in Lebanon.

"We're trying to deal with a problem that has been festering and brewing in Lebanon now for years and years and years," said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "And so it's not going to be solved by one resolution in the Security Council."

Security Council members were working on a second resolution that would form an international force that would move in to Lebanon and help take control of the southern part of the country, where Hezbollah has been operating and based its fight against Israel.


Residents and rescue workers search for survivors at the site of a Hezbollah rocket attack in the northern Israel coastal town of Haifa Sunday Aug. 6, 2006. Hezbollah rockets crashed into Haifa Sunday, killing three people and injuring dozens of people, in a heavy barrage on Israel's third largest city. Earlier in the day 12 Israelis were killed in another attack in northern Israel. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)


Rice said that process would take several months, but the important first step is to stop the large-scale military operations between Israel and Hezbollah that have been devastating civilians for more than three weeks.

"These things take a while to wind down," she said. "It is certainly not the case that probably all violence is going to stop, but the kind of large-scale violence that is really so hard on the Lebanese and Israeli people - the rocketing into Israel, the major offensive military operations - it's important to get those stopped.

"I can't say that you should rule out that there could be skirmishes of some kind for some time to come," she said.

[ClassWarrior]

1. Wishful thinking.

NGU.

[Monkeyman]

2. Three to Four More weeks thats the word

[maddezmom]

3. duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2439252