Beirut, Lebanon – Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora accused Israel of “crimes against humanity” during a tour of a devastated Beirut suburb on Sunday, while the Lebanese defense minister warned of harsh punishment for Hezbollah militants who violate the fragile, week-old truce that ended a month of combat.
The cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah was shaken over the weekend by an Israeli commando raid in eastern Lebanon, prompting the United Nations to intensify efforts to assemble an international peacekeeping force that would act as a buffer between the warring parties.
France, which commands the existing peacekeeping force, called for a meeting of European Union countries to volunteer troops.
Negotiations with other countries hit a snag, however, when Israel announced Sunday that it would reject forces from nations that don’t have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. That condition would rule out Malaysia, Bangladesh and Indonesia – among the few countries that have volunteered to help enforce the cease-fire along the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Until an international force is in place, the Lebanese military is standing guard in the south as part of a historic deployment to villages that had been firmly under Hezbollah’s control and off-limits to the government.
Lebanon’s army is a weak force that’s outgunned by Hezbollah and isn’t authorized to search for the militant group’s weapons for the time being. The eventual disarmament of Hezbollah is a condition of the U.N. resolution.
Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said the government was relying on Hezbollah to respect its end of the truce and said anyone who violated the agreement would face trial for treason.
“Any rocket that would give Israel justification (to strike Lebanon) will be treated harshly,” Murr told reporters in Beirut on Sunday. “It will be considered as direct collaboration with the Israeli enemy.”
So far it’s been Israel, not Hezbollah, accused of breaking the cease-fire resolution that introduced a tentative end to a month of Israeli air raids and Hezbollah rocket barrages. Early Saturday, helicopter-borne Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah stronghold in the Bekaa Valley, clashing with militants and villagers in gun battles that killed one Israeli soldier.
While U.N. and Lebanese officials condemned the operation as a violation of the truce, Israeli leaders said they wouldn’t hesitate to continue efforts to thwart Hezbollah from restocking its arsenal with weapons smuggled across the border from Syria.
