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Journalism of Courage
JERUSALEM, April 2: Israeli ministers approved Wednesday a 20-year-old UN resolution calling for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon, but Beirut immediately rejected conditions attached to the pullout offer. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the nine members of his inner “security cabinet” had for the first time approved UN Resolution 425, which was adopted in 1978 and calls on Israel to withdraw its troops “forthwith” from Lebanon.
However, the cabinet decision linked any withdrawal from the buffer zone Israel occupies in South Lebanon to Lebanese guarantees that the border area will not be used by guerrilla groups to attack Israel.
“We call on the Lebanese government to enter negotiations” on security arrangements, Netanyahu said, admitting that “this could take some time.”He also asked UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for help in implementing the plan. “Netanyahu called Annan to inform him of the decision and obtain the backing of the United Nations for the Israeli initiative,” his officesaid.
But Lebanese President Elias Hrawi rejected the call. “There will be no negotiations at all with Israel if it wants to withdraw from South Lebanon,” Hrawi said. “If it wishes to withdraw, then let it do so.”Syria, the de facto power in Lebanon where it has 35,000 troops, also dismissed the decision as a “manoeuver.”
“Political observers described Israel’s conditional offer to implement 425 as a manoeuver aimed at destroying the unity of the Syrian and Lebanese tracks” of peace negotiations with Israel, the official SANA news agency said.
Netanyahu’s full cabinet was expected to approve the proposal at its weekly meeting on Sunday.
Wednesday’s vote was the first official approval of proposals first made by Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai in January for ending Israel’s increasingly costly occupation of South Lebanon.
Mordechai said he had called US special Middle East envoy Dennis Ross to inform him of the plan, which he described as a “serious initiative.”“Behind thescenes the Lebanese say they are ready to accept the proposition, but they fear Syria,” Mordechai said.
“Today the Lebanese Army is strong and I hope that our initiative will succeed and assure that security of our northern region, but there is no question of a unilateral withdrawal of our troops,” he added.
The Israeli security cabinet said in a statement it accepted Resolution 425 to allow Israeli forces to leave with “appropriate security arrangements.’
