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Resolution to Halt Fighting in Lebanon Is Unanimously Approved

Warren Hoge

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ebanese and Israeli governments this weekend to determine when the full cessation of hostilities would take effect.

The measure would expand the existing 2,000-man United Nations peacekeeping force, known as Unifil, to 15,000 and dispatch it into southern Lebanon to assist a 15,000-man Lebanese force that Fouad Siniora, Lebanon's prime minister, has pledged to send there.

In addition, it would give Unifil, a peace monitoring force that has been long criticized as under-resourced and ineffective, greatly enhanced authority, equipment, responsibilities and scope of operation.

The resolution extends Unifil's mandate a year and empowers it to take action "to insure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind" and "to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent if from discharging its duties."

The resolution also urges countries to contribute troops to the beefed up Unifil, and diplomats said that France, Australia, Italy and Turkey were among those expected to help fill the international complement. President Bush has said that the United States would offer no troops but could contribute logistical assistance.

The zone the new joint force will be responsible for extends from the Blue Line border of Israel and Lebanon to the Litani River, roughly 15 miles to the north. That zone would be declared free of all "armed personnel, assts and weapons other than those of the government of Lebanon and Unifil."

Israel and the United States had been insisting on the most robust possible international force out of concern that Hezbollah would take advantage of any truce to move back into southern Lebanon, the area it has controlled for years and used to send rockets into Israel.

Earlier drafts of the French-American resolution had specified that the force be created under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, which calls for enforcement by military means.

Lebanon protested that decision, and Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, the ambassador of France, and John R. Bolton, the ambassador of the United States, redrafted the resolution Thursday night to eliminate references to Chapter VII and replace them with the language of the less coercive Chapter VI.

The phased withdrawal and deployment approach was also a compromise to meet earlier Lebanese complaints that would have permitted the Israeli military to remain in South Lebanon.

The text calls for an immediate cessation of "all attacks" by Hezbollah but only of "all offensive military operations" by Israel. Since Israel has classed its war effort as one taken in self-defense, Lebanon said this amounted to a ceasefire against only one side, Hezbollah, and demanded that Israel be ordered to withdraw immediately behind the Blue Line.

Both American and Israeli officials said they interpret the reference to offensive military operations to mean that Israel can still address threats to its citizens in Israel, its armed forces in Lebanon and can respond to attacks from Hezbollah. If faced with an imminent threat, a senior U.S. official said, "Then yes, Israel can respond." Nonetheless, she said, "we expect a large-scale reduction in violence, and we'd expect the large-scale bombing to stop."

Another senior State Department official speaking under background briefing rules said the revised text had "all the characteristics of a Chapter VII resolution. It walks like, talks like and acts like a Chapter VII resolution."

The language change will not be popular with Israel and its supporters, but the American official said the force "will be able to defend itself and has a very strong mandate which you would see in a Chapter VII resolution."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was at the United Nations Friday, received assurances from Tzipi Livni, Israel's prime minister, that Israel will support the accord, according to the senior State Department official. She spoke to Ms. Livni three times Friday and once to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, he said.

The Americans had resisted earlier calls for ceasefires, arguing that one without political guarantees would simply return Lebanon to the situation it was in where Hezbollah could resume attacks on Israel.

A senior administration official in Crawford, Tex. where President Bush is on vacation said Friday that it increasingly seemed that Israel would not be able to achieve a military victory, a realization, he said, speaking not for attribution, that led the Americans to get behind a ceasefire.

The Lebanese are also likely to be unhappy with the resolution's failure to order Israel to relinquish control of Shebaa Farms, an area of the border that it seized in 1967 and remains in dispute between Lebanon and Syria.

The resolution simply asks Mr. Annan to develop ideas on how to solve the dispute and report back on his findings in 30 days.

The resolution does not order the return of abducted Israeli soldiers, an original reason Israel cited for going to war, nor does it meet Hezbollah requests for release of prisoners held by Israel. The measure simply says it is "mindful of the sensitivity of the issue of prisoners and encouraging of the efforts aimed at urgently settling the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel."

The original French -American draft, introduced last Saturday left the creation of the international stabilization force to a second resolution, which would have also been responsible for establishing a permanent ceasefire, setting up the disarmament of Hezbollah, demarcating the borders of Lebanon, establishing an arms embargo to prevent the entry of unauthorized weapons and empowering the Lebanese army to control all its territory.

The new text calls for all those objectives to be addressed now and says another resolution will be proposed sometime in the future to enhance the role of Unifil as needed.

The agreement brings to an end a four-week period in which the Security Council has been excoriated, particularly throughout the Middle East, for having taken no significant action to stop the fighting.

Mr. Annan said he welcomed the resolution but regretted how long it had taken to be adopted.

"I am profoundly disappointed that the Council did not reach this point much, much earlier," he said. "I am convinced that my disappointment and sense of frustration are shared by hundreds of millions of people around the world."

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Helene Cooper contributed reporting for this article.