Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the cease-fire agreement would ensure that "Hezbollah won't continue to exist as a state within a state."
"The Lebanese government is our address for every problem or violation of the agreement," Army Radio quoted him as saying. ...
The deal was seen at best as a draw with Hezbollah, and some felt Israel — unable to subdue a guerrillas force — had lost.
Neither the Lebanese army nor U.N. forces can be counted on to challenge Hezbollah and prevent the Iran-supplied guerrillas from rearming, military experts and commentators said.
[...]
Regarding U.N. forces ... From Reuters: . ()
The U.N. resolution authorizes up to 15,000 U.N. troops to move into Lebanon to enforce a ceasefire. France is widely expected to lead the force, which will expand the existing U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), but have a stronger mandate. ...
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy made clear in an interview with Le Monde newspaper that the mission of the larger UNIFIL would not include disarming Hizbollah by force.
"We never thought a purely military solution could resolve the problem of Hizbollah," he said. "We are agreed on the goal, the disarmament, but for us the means are purely political."
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BBC: Lebanon Refuses To Disarm Hezbollah Ed Morrissey
I guess that crying on television and writing op-eds about the desperate hope for peace cannot motivate Fuad Siniora and his Cabinet to take the concrete action that would deliver it. The that the Siniora government has rejected the UN demand to disarm Hezbollah, and the terrorist group has blocked the deployment of the Lebanese Army to the south:
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See also Riehl World View: ,
Contributed by Bill Faith on August 13, 2006 at 07:54 PM in , , , , |