As fighting rages in southern Lebanon, Annan reiterates call for cessation of hostilities

The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and Hizbollah have continued to exchange fire close to United Nations positions in southern Lebanon over the past 24 hours, with heavy fighting observed on both sides, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported today.

There were five incidents of shelling near UN positions from the Israeli side, UNIFIL said in a statement issued in the Lebanese city of Naqoura, and Hizbollah launched rockets from the vicinity of three UN positions. The statement added that UNIFIL has protested strongly to Israeli and Lebanese authorities about the firing.

UNIFIL said also that it has been unable to re-supply some of its positions in the area near Kafr Kila because of heavy exchanges of fire and shelling.

The intense fighting continued as Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in an interview last night with the Al-Jazeera television network, said he has told Security Council members how vital it is that they press for an immediate cessation of hostilities as a starting point to ending the conflict.

Mr. Annan called for “a way forward that will lead to a cessation of hostilities, a longer term ceasefire, a political framework that will resolve the problem once and for all, and deployment of an international force to the south to work with the Lebanese Government and the Lebanese army to allow the Government to extend its authority throughout the territory and implement Resolution 1559.”

Noting that Council members “sense the urgency” of the situation, he warned that if urgent measures are not taken, then the fighting could escalate and possibly spread across the region.

In the past three weeks in the Middle East, violence has forced around 1 million people to flee their homes – an estimated 800,000 in Lebanon alone – and hundreds have been killed. Lebanon’s Government said recently that 620 people had been killed and 3,225 injured, while Israeli authorities have said 56 people have been killed and 1,733 wounded in the northern part of the country.

“In this conflict, it is the civilians who have paid the price – women, children and unarmed civilians,” the Secretary-General said.

Meanwhile, UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York that a meeting of potential troop contributors for a proposed international stabilization force in Lebanon, scheduled to take place today, has been delayed.

Mr. Fawzi said it was decided to postpone the meeting until there is an agreed political framework for ending the conflict in the Middle East and determining what kind of mandate such an international force might have.

“The Member States who are making the decisions in this house need a little more time to make up their minds about the political framework in order to make for a better, more constructive meeting,” he said.