Amid Escalating Violence, UN Security Council Sets Urgent Meeting On Lebanon
Julie Farby - All Headline News Staff Writer Paris, France (AHN) - After Israel responded to the capture of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas by launching a wave of military strikes on Lebanon, the U.N. Security Council set an urgent meeting for Friday. French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, the council president for July, tells reporters the public meeting was being scheduled at the request of the Lebanese Mission to the United Nations, saying Israel and Lebanon would be invited to address the 15-nation council, which also would hear a briefing by a U.N. official. The meeting was set as Israel blockaded Lebanese ports and struck Beirut airport and two military air bases, fueling retaliatory violence that have killed 53 civilians in Lebanon since Wednesday's seizure of the two Israelis. The Israeli army says Hezbollah fighters rained more than 80 rockets on northern Israel in their heaviest bombardment in a decade, hitting Israel's third largest city, Haifa. Asked about the U.N. meeting by Britain's Sky television news, Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, admits he saw little the world body could do, saying, "The U.N. has already said Israel has fulfilled all the United Nations resolutions to the latest point, and the one who didn't do so was Lebanon. So I don't see anything that the United Nations can do about it." However, council diplomats say Arab nations might ask the council to app |
