Lebanon: US blocks all Security Council action
Reuters
The U.N. Security Council on Saturday again rejected pleas that it call for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon after the United States objected, diplomats said.
Washington argued in closed-door talks that the focus for Middle East diplomacy for now should be on the weekend summit in St Petersburg of the Group of Eight industrialised nations, council diplomats said.
It was the sole member of the 15-nation U.N. body to oppose any council action at all at this time, they said.
"We would expect much more from the Security Council," Lebanese Foreign Ministry official Nouhad Mahmoud told reporters after the council meeting, singling out the United States for blame.
While Washington has been very supportive of the Lebanese government in the past, "when it comes to Israel, it seems things changed," Mahmoud said. "Destruction is still going on, people are still dying ... and here we are impotent." Read more
db: How can it possibly be in the interest of the United States to block a call for a ceasefire? Have they not thousands of troops in the region whose safety is affected by injustices towards Middle East nations, not to mention thousands of US citizens currently in Lebanon itself? Do hearts and minds really not matter? The 'march of freedom'? The 'ceder revolution'? Those with doubts relating to the recent paper by Professors John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt concerning the impact of the Israel Lobby on US policy may want to rethink.
The U.N. Security Council on Saturday again rejected pleas that it call for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon after the United States objected, diplomats said.
Washington argued in closed-door talks that the focus for Middle East diplomacy for now should be on the weekend summit in St Petersburg of the Group of Eight industrialised nations, council diplomats said.
It was the sole member of the 15-nation U.N. body to oppose any council action at all at this time, they said.
"We would expect much more from the Security Council," Lebanese Foreign Ministry official Nouhad Mahmoud told reporters after the council meeting, singling out the United States for blame.
While Washington has been very supportive of the Lebanese government in the past, "when it comes to Israel, it seems things changed," Mahmoud said. "Destruction is still going on, people are still dying ... and here we are impotent." Read more
db: How can it possibly be in the interest of the United States to block a call for a ceasefire? Have they not thousands of troops in the region whose safety is affected by injustices towards Middle East nations, not to mention thousands of US citizens currently in Lebanon itself? Do hearts and minds really not matter? The 'march of freedom'? The 'ceder revolution'? Those with doubts relating to the recent paper by Professors John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt concerning the impact of the Israel Lobby on US policy may want to rethink.
posted by exoplanet at 2:30 AM
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