On the other hand, if he can delay their exit by just one month, then there should be a ceasefire at that time (according to the conventional wisdom) and the IDF will not have access to these former UNIFIL bases.
The fact that Kofi won this victory with no reported objections speaks volumes about the corrupt and craven United Nations.
That phrase alone would be simply hillarious...if it weren't so maddeningly ridiculous.
Oh yes! The current peacekeeping mission has worked so well and we all know that unarmed or lightly armed soldiers can easily be prtected by the magic of the blue helmet.
The UN is to blame for this fiasco. What better reason to send the UN Headquarters to Lebanon?
The fact that Kofi Annan wanted to keep these international soldiers in harm's way in the middle of a war zone is perplexing.
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I think that Kriminal Kofi is SO desperate in his attempts to legitimize one of the most corrupt and criminal bodies in the world, he would put ANYONE in harms way just to accomplish that. The U.N. is so clearly IRRELEVANT now, I think Kofi is having visions of it being thrown out (finally) from the United States. His complicity in the criminal behavior of the U.N. is without any doubt and this maggot is lucky he is not in irons in a dungeon somewhere...
The UN exists and operates in a parallel bizarro universe!
The UN (Unifil watched Hezbollah take over southern Lebanon, fortify itself, and attack Israel repeatedly for years. Officially called the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, commonly called Unifil, these “peacekeepers” have been between Lebanon and Israel for 28 years at a cost of about one hundred million dollars a year.
Israel has no respect for them. In fact, Israel thinks they help Hezbollah.
Unifil is mostly comprised of soldiers of questionable quality who are there becase their countries get paid by the UN to put troops in country.
Renewing Unifil is a weak and almost senseless stopgap: especially since the PM of Israel says the war will go on for at least 10 days to two weeks.
There is another problem here for Israel and the UN. Kofi Annan lost his impartiality for just a moment, and maybe more, during the current crisis. Without the benefit of any investigation, the leader of the world’s largest peace-loving organization, accused a sovereign member state of murdering peacekeepers intentionally. I call that "blurting out the truth. Kofi showed us that he is NOT impartial at all: he is against Israel. I find that deplorable for any Sec General of the UN. He should be sacked, without question.
The world can be an ugly place and it just got uglier on Monday.
Israel declared a two day cessation to the air war on targets in Lebanon near Israel. Hezbollah new this was a conditional halt: any overt military activity against Israel would be seen as an intentional provocation.
Before too many hours, Hezbollah produced that provocation by shooting at an Israeli tank.
As a military man, I fully understand Israel’s response. When your guys are under fire, you shoot back.
Just about an hour later the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there will be no cease-fire, adding that "Israel is continuing to fight."
Why? Because Hezbollah refuses to stop launching missiles into Israel, Hezbollah continues to use Lebanese civilians as shields, and Hezbollah has made clear that there will be no quarter given to Israel.
I asked my friend Boaz Ganor, an Israeli anti-terror expert, about the situation.
“Every Israeli regrets the loss of innocent lives,” Ganor said.
“A cease fire now, without achieving the strategic goals of the operation in Lebanon, would be an incomplete finish for Israel. In fact, a cease fire now would be dangerous to Israel and all nations fighting the war against terror,” Dr. Boaz Ganor told me.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel plans to "expand and strengthen" its attack on Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, at the United Nations in New York, the Security Council delayed the threat of sanctions on Iran until at least August 31, 2006. The U.N. has recognized that Iran has a nuclear weapon production program, in violation with UN demands that it be stopped.
Because of Russian and Chinese demands, the text is weaker than earlier drafts, which would have made the threat of sanctions immediate. The draft now essentially requires the council to hold more discussions before it considers sanctions.
The Security Council debate today was in response to a confidential International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report provided to members of the IAEA Board of Governors. The IAEA declares in paragraph 85: "Based on all information currently available to the Agency, it is clear that Iran has failed in a number of instances over an extended period of time to meet its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement."
Just a few days ago, Russia approved a draft agreement with Iran on cooperation in the tourist industry.
The five-year agreement aims to promote tour groups and individual tourism to both countries by simplifying travel bureaucracy, to facilitate the arrangement of symposiums and exchange schemes for experts and journalists specializing in tourism issues, and to boost contacts between tour operators.
But Russia’s big gold mine with Iran is in supplying Iran with the technology it needs to grow and expand its nuclear program and its oil industry.
The French have a long time relationship with Lebanon.
On April 4, 1996, French President Jacques Chirac became the first world leader to make an official visit to the country by a western leader since the outbreak of the war in 1975.
In a Middle East, where the French priority has become winning large business contracts, both civilian and military, France's traditional alliances have lost a great deal of their importance. This is particularly the case in Lebanon, where the Christians are out and the Shia are in. France made a lot of money off Saddam Hussein so they will stop at nothing to woo Lebanon.
The French are intent upon building bridges to Muslim communities who can be expected to dominate Lebanese affairs, most prominently the Shia.
French leaders praised Iran and disparaged Israel on Monday in two separate news conferences held in Beirut and in the Paris area.
At the news conference held in Beirut, French Foreign Minister Phillippe Douste-Blazy praised Iran as a “stabilizing force in the Middle East.”
In Paris, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, asked about Israel's aborted semi-cease fire for air attacks said, “cessation of the aerial attacks is insufficient in light of the situation in Lebanon.”
France’s home population is about 20% Moslem and the French are trying hard to live down the angry riots of young Islamic men around Paris and other cities last spring.
A senior diplomat, who spoke to me only on the condition of anonymity said, “This is getting like a bad Tom Clancy novel.”
“There is a sense now that Secretary of State Rice was taken aback, taken by surprise by the Israeli resolve.”
This is a sad and difficult day in the history of world peace, stability and diplomacy.
Sorry I got a little long here....Regret typos too.
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