Israel at War Watch: Israeli-Hezbollah Cease-Fire Begins Monday
Smoke billows from a destroyed clothing factory, following an Israeli air strike early Friday, in the Hezbollah stronghold suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2006.
AP: Annan: Mideast cease-fire starts Monday
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced that a cease-fire in the Hezbollah-Israel fighting will take effect at 8 a.m. Lebanese time (1 a.m. EDT) Monday.
Annan said in a statement distributed in Beirut early Sunday that he had been in touch with Prime Ministers Fuad Saniora of Lebanon and Ehud Olmert of Israel to discuss the exact time and date when the cessation of hostilities called for by a U.N. Security Council resolution will enter into force.
“I am happy to annouce that the two leaders have agreed that the cessation of hostilities and the end of the fighting will enter into force on 14 August, at 0500 hours GMT,” the statement said.
Ok, let’s take a look at the cease-fire agreement.
JPost: Analysis: Not so bad in theory
Read it all……
It really comes down to compliance by Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.
This agreement may buy two or three years of peace. Time for the Bush Administration to be out of office and the Iran nuclear program settled.
Thus, the ceasefire agreement is not necessarily a disaster for Israel though it certainly isn’t a solution either. It may provide some years of peace.
For Lebanon, though, it is a political disaster. Certainly, the terms are not going to let a strong Lebanese government emerge or stymie Syrian and Iranian ambitions. It will permit an end to the current war and reconstruction, but only until Hizbullah, Damascus, and Teheran decide they want to fight on Lebanese territory again.
Now it is onto Iran’s nuclear program and the August 31 deadline to end uranium enrichment. A Hezbollah threat against Israel as the United States tightens the screws on Tehran is now over. And the world now recognizes Iran’s duplicity in helping Hezbollah as a proxy against Israel.
How will Israel and the United States team up directly to confront Iran on the nuclear issue?
Stay tuned…….
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Israel at War Watch: Israeli Troops Reach Latani River – Will Cease-Fire 7 AM Monday
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