SA expresses support for Lebanon

South Africa has expressed support for the Lebanese government's position in the increasingly contentious diplomatic negotiations to try to draft a United Nations Security Council resolution to stop the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad disclosed on Tuesday that Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora had written to President Thabo Mbeki asking for SA's political support in the urgent international effort to stop the fighting.

This included support for Lebanon's position on the wording of a UN Security Council resolution which is being drafted now but which has run into difficulties.

Pahad said in Pretoria on Tuesday the South African government still had to decide if and how it would respond to Siniora's request. However, he later said SA already supported the main points of Lebanon's proposed amendments to a draft resolution prepared by the US and France.

"But after the letter we will see what more we can do," Pahad added.

Lebanon and other Arab states have objected to the US and French proposal to allow the Israeli army to remain in southern Lebanon with the authority to use force defensively.

Lebanon wants Israel to withdraw its forces completely, handing over territory it has captured to UN peacekeepers and they to the Lebanese military.

Pahad said the Arab states were concerned about who would decide when Israeli forces were justified in using defensive force in southern Lebanon.

He acknowledged that SA had not studied the French and US draft resolution, but said it believed the resolution would be one-sided if it did not take into account the concerns of Lebanon, Hezbollah and the Arab states.

If there were no decisive changes then very important players would not accept the resolution and the war would continue.

Pahad urged the UN to "stop dilly-dallying" and find a solution.

He warned that the "Arab street" was "seething" because of the killing of Lebanese civilians by Israeli forces and by the failure of their own governments to address the problem. There was a great danger that it might explode, with disastrous consequences for regional and world peace.

Pahad said 85 percent of Lebanon's infrastructure had now been destroyed by Israel, yet Hezbollah's capacity to resist and fire rockets into Israel had not been diminished and this was provoking "even more vicious attacks" by Israel.

Amnesty International and other humanitarian watchdogs have warned that Israel's attacks on civilian property in Lebanon and Gaza were war crimes.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said these actions and Hezbollah's rocket attacks on Israeli civilians constituted violations of international law and the Geneva Conventions.

Annan warned both sides that they might face international legal action after the fighting stopped.

Peter Fabricius