Russia loses patience over Lebanon resolution11 August 2006
Russia sowed unexpected confusion at the United Nations last night, announcing it had lost patience with still-stalled efforts by the US and France to agree a ceasefire text for Lebanon and was tabling a resolution of its own to the Security Council, demanding a 72-hour halt in the fighting.
"We can't sit there and keep discussing and wait for something to happen," said the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin. " There is a humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Lebanon. We have to stop the killing."
The Israeli Defence Forces had held off from launching a major ground invasion despite having cabinet approval apparently out of deference to the diplomatic process in New York. France and the US did appear at one moment to have settled on a text, which, in part, would have given the UN the authority to use force to create peace. But, last night, the Lebanese government objected.
Diplomats insisted that the two countries would work through the night to try to find a solution. Failing a breakthrough, it seemed clear that Moscow would press for a vote on its alternative text that would aim to stop the fighting, at least temporarily.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1218442.eceMoscow presses for 72-hour Mideast truceAugust 11, 2006 - 6:04AM
Russia's UN ambassador says he will introduce a Security Council resolution calling for a 72-hour humanitarian truce due to long delays in US-French efforts to seek a ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah.
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he would press for a quick truce because there was as yet no deal in the 15-nation council on the final wording of a US-French draft calling for an end to the fighting and also setting out broad principles for a political solution to the conflict.
"Unfortunately, we at this point came to the conclusion that we do not have an immediate prospect of this (US-French) resolution being accepted," Churkin said.
Among the obstacles to the US-French draft, Churkin said, was Lebanon's opposition to the use of Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter in authorising an existing UN peacekeeping force to help Lebanese troops fill an expected security vacuum in southern Lebanon when Israeli troops withdraw.
Chapter 7 would allow peacekeepers greater leeway to take offensive as well as defensive actions.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Moscow-presses-for-72hour-Mideast-truce/2006/08/11/1154803057390.html
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