Top UN envoy in Lebanon calls for truce, UN resolution enforcement

UNITED NATIONS - A call by the U.S. and France for a 21-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah "is still on the table," said the top U.N. official in Lebanon on Wednesday as she pushed for a way to enforce a U.N. Security Council resolution violated for years by both sides.

A U.N. peacekeeping mission is mandated by Security Council resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, to help the Lebanese army keep its southern border area with Israel free of weapons or armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese state.

That has sparked friction with Iran-backed Hezbollah, which effectively controls southern Lebanon. All parties are banned from crossing the Blue Line - a U.N.-mapped line separating Lebanon from Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"We need a realistic roadmap for the implementation, by both sides, of resolution 1701. And this must include clear implementation and enforcement mechanisms," said U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

"At the end of the day, it is the lack or non-implementation of resolution 1701 over the past 18 years that led to today's harsh reality," she told reporters.

Any changes would have to be made by the 15-member Security Council and agreed by both sides.

U.N. peacekeepers have remained in place in southern Lebanon, despite Israel asking them to move as its troops crossed the border to target Hezbollah militants. Hezbollah said on Wednesday it had pushed back advancing Israeli forces.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said on Wednesday that Israel believed in the language of resolution 1701, but that "we should think about how to enforce it."

"We have no desire to stay in Lebanon, and I think the only troops that can do that will be the Lebanese military and UNIFIL, but they need to have the strength, the power and the ability to ensure that Hezbollah is not coming back to the same places," Danon told reporters, referring to the peacekeeping mission - the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.

France and the United States last month proposed a 21-day ceasefire. But those talks quickly appeared to stall as Israel heavily bombed Beirut's southern suburbs, killing longtime Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.

"The joint call for a 21-day ceasefire, as launched by the US or led by the US and France, I think is still on the table and very relevant, so we should not dismiss it. I don't think that new initiatives will add to it," Hennis-Plasschaert said.

"The many appeals and calls for ceasefire are crystal clear. We need a window for diplomatic efforts to succeed," she said.

-(Reuters)