United Nations’ Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday saw for himself the terrible destruction in southern Lebanon which, thanks to US obstruction, he had tried and failed for a month to halt with a UN Security Council resolution. He was no doubt appalled at Israel’s systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure and the deadly cluster bomb harvest it has sown which is causing even more deaths and injuries.
But Annan’s job is not to apportion blame but to bring compromise and peace. Having seen the devastation and heartbreak for himself, then honored UN personnel slain by the Israelis, Annan flew on to see the Olmert government. A key element in this part of his mission was to get the Israeli blockade of Lebanon lifted.
While he was in Lebanon, he called for the release of the two Israeli soldiers, whose capture allegedly triggered the start of the conflict. Only a few hours earlier, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had admitted in a broadcast, that had he known that the July 12 seizure of the two solders would have resulted in a 34-day war, he would not have countenanced it. This unexpected admission will do little to assuage those in Lebanon who are bitter at the ruin that Hezbollah caused to a state only just recovering from the blight and trauma of years of civil war and occupation. Nevertheless the Hezbollah leader’s frankness about the error of the original action is bound to impress many outside his fervent supporters for whom he can now do no wrong.
Indeed this realism may bode well for the long and difficult negotiations that lie ahead, to make the cease-fire stick, successfully deploy UN peacekeepers and find a long-term way to replace the armed presence of Hezbollah in the south with that of the Lebanese Army and security forces. Kofi Annan yesterday made it clear that the disarmament of Hezbollah would not be part of the new 15,000-strong UNIFIL force’s remit to undertake this exercise.
The future of Hezbollah’s weapons is therefore rightly a matter for Lebanon to decide — the organization and the elected Lebanese government, in which Hezbollah holds two ministerial portfolios.
As the Israeli government is holding an inquiry into the tactical and strategic failures of its assault, Hezbollah’s leader can claim that he is speaking from a position of strength. Because Israel did not destroy Hezbollah as it said it would, Hezbollah emerged battered but victorious.
There is, however, no place for Hezbollah’s militias in Lebanon’s future. Its victory will turn to dust if it gives Israeli hawks the excuse to pulverize the luckless Lebanese still more. The price of the check to Israeli aggression has been unacceptably high for Lebanon. Further violence will serve no purpose. If Nasrallah is wise, he will take advantage of this high point in Hezbollah’s fortunes, use the momentum that has been created to convert its voice entirely into politics and now work with the Lebanese government and the UN for a lasting peace.
