UNITED NATIONS, Aug 12 (Reuters) -
The U.N. Security Council adopted by a 15-0 vote a resolution aimed at
ending the Israeli-Hizbollah conflict.
Key points in the text, approved on
Friday, are:
- A "full cessation of hostilities." The Hizbollah militia is to stop fighting immediately and Israel is to halt all "offensive military operations."
- Deployment of up to 15,000 new troops for the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, to monitor the truce with a mandate to "take all necessary action" needed to perform its duties.
- UNIFIL can "take all the necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces, and as it deems with its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind."
- The Lebanese government is to deploy troops in the south, now controlled by Hizbollah guerrillas, and prevent any weapons from flowing to the militia.
- Israel is to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon when fighting stops in parallel with the deployment of Lebanese and U.N. troops.
- States are to bar the delivery of weapons or military equipment to "any entity or individual" in Lebanon, except the Lebanese army and U.N. troops.
- The preamble of the resolution, which carries less weight, calls for the unconditional release of Israeli soldiers abducted by Hizbollah in a cross-border raid. And it encourages settling the issue of Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel.
- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is to develop proposals within 30 days for disarmament of militia and delineation of borders, including the disputed Shebaa farms area on the Israel-Syrian-Lebanon border.