Iran Calls the Shots
The Associated Press has reported that the Lebanese cabinet has “postponed indefinitely” a meeting to work out the details of the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The problem, not surprisingly, involves the reservations that Hezbollah has about the agreement. This should come as no surprise since yesterday Hassan Nasrallah stated his intention to keep fighting until Israel withdraws entirely from Lebanon, whereas the sense of the resolution is that the complete Israeli withdrawal will not come until the ceasefire and the move of Lebanese and international troops into the south. Nasrallah and company are unhappy with the implications of the resolution, namely Hezbollah’s responsibility for initiating the fighting and the call for the disarming of the Shi’ite “militia.”
Why would Hezbollah and the Lebanese government suddenly balk? You can find a clue at the website of Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency. I’ve appended a copy of the article. The bolding is mine.
Iran on Sunday said that Friday's UN Security Council Resolution 1701 on Lebanon, was not balanced.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi made the remark while speaking to domestic and foreign reporters at his weekly press conference.
"The Security Council resolution on Lebanon is an issue which relates to Lebanon. It is the Lebanese government which should accept or reject it.
"To Iran, as a country following up the regional developments, the resolution is not balanced," he said.
"But we welcome and are happy with (establishment) of ceasefire although it is very late," he added.
The spokesman stressed, "A one-month delay in adoption of the resolution discredited the United Nations. We expected the Resolution to take the main source of aggression, namely the Zionist regime and its crimes into consideration and put an end to its crimes.
"We believe the Zionist regime is the main loser of this war while the Lebanese people and the resistance are the main winners." Pointing to the issue of disarmament of the Hizbollah, as called for in the resolution, he said, "The Lebanese government and Hizbollah have rejected the issue of disarmament.
"The call to disarm Hizbollah was illegitimate and illogical. We should remember as long as there is occupation, resistance will continue."
Combine this with Hezbollah’s launch of 250 rockets into northern Israel, including the city of Haifa, and the prospects of a true ceasefire early Monday morning Washington-time appear a bit bleak. If the Lebanese government is not committed to its establishment of a “monopoly” of armed force throughout its own country, then UNSC 1701 is as meaningless as the previous UN resolutions and the Taifa agreement, and the fighting will continue. Since the Israeli cabinet today did accept the resolution, unanimously, the onus for the continuation (unless Nasrallah changes his mind) of the fighting should fall on Hezbollah. But, then again, international public opinion and the UN do not always act in a logical fashion.
But if Hezbollah does keep fighting, given the clear IRNA statement, there should be absolutely no question about who controls Hezbollah and what Israel (and by extension the United States, the West, and the UN) is up against.
