[Marxism] US truce plan shaky as war escalates, Arab states dissent; Israel threatens to attack Iran

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rice's reference to the UN Security Council as a "rubber stamp" was
entertaining.  And she guarantees a lot more war to come, or so I read
her.
Fred Feldman


UN truce plan under threat as conflict spirals

Israel suffers deadliest day yet and Arab states reject draft resolution

Ewen MacAskill, Oliver Burkeman in New York, Rory McCarthy in Kfar
Giladi and Simon Tisdall in Tehran
Monday August 7, 2006

Guardian

A UN ceasefire initiative for Lebanon ran into almost immediate trouble
last night after it was rejected by key Arab countries and provoked
Hizbullah's deadliest strike on Israel so far.

Hours after the draft security council ceasefire resolution was
published, the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, also issued a
sobering warning that she expected fighting to continue once the text
was formally adopted today or tomorrow.

The prediction came as Lebanon and Hizbullah dismissed the deal and
Israel, Syria and Iran embarked on a fresh war of words highlighting the
potential for the war to turn into a regional conflict.

Within 24 hours of the draft being agreed, Hizbullah launched a rocket
barrage that killed 12 Israeli soldiers. They followed up with the
heaviest attack yet on the port city of Haifa, with a volley of missiles
flattening buildings and pulling down electrical lines. Three were
killed and at least 120 injured. Israel responded stepping up its aerial
bombardment, with the port of Tyre bearing the brunt.

Ms Rice, speaking at George Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, said she
hoped the resolution would reduce violence but warned that no single
resolution was going to bring peace overnight. "These things take a
while to wind down," she said. "It is certainly not the case that
probably all violence is going to stop."

A Foreign Office source echoed Ms Rice, saying: "No one is naive enough
to think there will be peace once the resolution is rubber-stamped by
the security council."

The draft resolution was agreed between the US, Israel's biggest backer,
and France, the former colonial power in Lebanon, at the UN headquarters
in New York on Saturday. All 15 members of the council last night
discussed the draft, which calls for "a full cessation of hostilities".

Lebanon, through Qatar, which has a seat on the council, tried
unsuccessfully to change the draft, calling for an immediate withdrawal
of Israeli troops rather than having them remain in the country until a
UN-backed international force is put in place. The draft allows Israel
to continue "defensive operations" in Lebanon after a ceasefire.

Ms Rice said the resolution would provide some clarity this week by
showing who obeyed the ceasefire call. "We're going to know who really
did want to stop the violence and who didn't," she said.

Lebanon and Hizbullah said the draft offered no timetable for an Israeli
troop withdrawal. "If Israel has not won the war, but still gets this,
what would have happened had they won?" asked Nabih Berri, the speaker
of the Lebanese parliament negotiating on behalf of Hizbullah.

Israel said little in public yesterday about the draft, but reports in
the press suggested political leaders were happy with the result. Key
parts of the agreement were seen to be in Israel's favour.

One Israeli political source told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper: "We got
what we wanted. The meaning of the decision is that there is no black
hole or quiet vacuum. Israel will leave only when someone comes to
replace her."

In the most explicit threat yet from Israel to Iran, Dan Gillerman, the
ambassador to the UN, said in an interview with the BBC that an attack
by Hizbullah on Tel Aviv would be tantamount to an "act of war" and
Hizbullah would not make such an attack without an explicit order from
Iran. The implication of his words was that Israel would retaliate by
attacking Tehran.

Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah's leader, said on Friday that any attack on
the centre of Beirut would be met with a rocket attack Tel Aviv, which
has so far escaped harm. He was speaking just days after Mohsen Rezai,
secretary of Iran's expediency council, said Israel should expect "very
difficult days in cities such as Tel Aviv" unless it ended the war.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, said: "No one
wants to see an expansion of the conflict. But there is no doubt that
Hizbullah is the long arm of Iran, that the missiles landing in Israel
are not Lebanese missiles, that the fortifications we are dealing with
in Lebanon were built with somebody else's money not Lebanese. The idea
that Hizbullah is a tool of Iranian foreign policy is correct."

Asked what Israel's reaction would be to a rocket strike on Tel Aviv, he
said: "There is nothing I can say about that."

Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, in an interview with the
Guardian, described Mr Bush and Tony Blair as "codefendants" in war
crimes and claimed they had foreknowledge of Israeli plans to launch a
"campaign of aggression" in Lebanon which he claimed was part of a "war
on the whole Middle East". But Iran did not fear an American attack, he
said.

Syria, which also backs Hizbullah, rejected the draft resolution. Its
foreign minister, Walid Moallem, normally one of the more moderate
voices in Damascus said on a visit to Beirut that he personally was
prepared to volunteer to fight with Hizbullah and described the draft as
a "recipe for continuation of the war".

Mr Blair is to remain at Downing Street today delaying his holiday
further in a bid to ensure the UN resolution is passed by tomorrow and
the ground work is laid for a fresh UN resolution setting out the terms
of a multinational force operating in Lebanon. The foreign secretary,
Margaret Beckett, left for a carvanning holiday in France at the weekend
but the Foreign Office said she would fly to New York if the presence of
ministers was required to vote on the resolution. 


 
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