U.S.-French resolution demands Lebanon’s surrender

The U.S.-French “ceasefire” agreement is in reality a brazen demand that Lebanon and the Lebanese resistance surrender and accept the re-occupation of their country. It attempts to win at the negotiating table what the U.S.-Israel military alliance has been unable to win on the battlefield, despite their overwhelming superiority in weaponry.

It is no surprise that such an agreement was reached between France, the former colonizer of Lebanon and Syria, and

The remains of a bridge bombed by Israel north of Beirut, Lebanon.

the United States, the current dominant imperialist power in the region. For more than two years, Washington and Paris have been collaborating to reassert control over Lebanon and bring about regime change in Syria. While working together in this re-colonization scheme, the United States and France have continued to compete with each other over who would be the preeminent power. The rest of the UN Security Council hasn’t discussed the resolution yet.

Click here for background on the joint U.S.-French campaign against Syria and Lebanon.

Also unsurprising is the fact that the announcement of the resolution was followed by an immediate intensification of the war.

On Aug. 6, it was reported that at least 19 Lebanese civilians had been killed in Israeli air strikes, while 12 Israeli soldiers and three civilians were killed by rockets. Heavy fighting was reported in several locations in southern Lebanon.

Israel’s massive bombing campaign has killed more than 850 Lebanese in the past 25 days, 90 percent of them civilians, and destroyed much of Lebanon’s infrastructure. More than a quarter of the Lebanese population has been displaced, over a million people. During the same time, at least 150 Palestinians have been killed, mostly in Gaza. On the Israeli side, 58 soldiers and 34 civilians have been reported killed.

Both the Lebanese and Syrian governments, and Lebanese resistance movements including Hezbollah, Amal and the Lebanese Communist Party have denounced and rejected the U.S.-French resolution. On the other side, both Bush administration and Israeli officials say they’re as “happy” about it. A quick glance at some of the main points of the resolution shows why:

• The Lebanese resistance must halt all military operations, while Israel, which is occupying parts of southern Lebanon is only required to stop “offensive” operations.
  
  
• Israel does not have to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.
  
  
• Hezbollah and all resistance organizations must be disarmed. A procedure is laid out for disarming them. This provision would also disarm the Palestinian security forces that protect the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. The last time the Palestinian camps were unguarded in 1982, the massacres at Sabra and Shatila were carried out in a joint operation by Lebanese fascists and the Israeli army, despite U.S. “guarantees” of protection.
  
  
• An international arms embargo would be placed on Lebanon. No mention is made of the massive U.S. arming of Israel.
  
  
• Hezbollah is required to free captured Israeli prisoners unconditionally, but the resolution only “encourages the
  
  
  
  

  Speaker of Lebanon’s parliament, Nabih Berri, rejects the U.S.-French proposal, Aug. 6.

  efforts aimed at settling the issue of the Lebanese prisoners in Israel.” The 9,800 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are not mentioned at all.
  
  
• An international “peace-keeping” force will be deployed in southern Lebanon. The clear mission of the force would be to suppress the Lebanese resistance. No “peace-keepers” would be deployed on the Israeli side.

In typically arrogant fashion, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared the extraordinarily one-sided U.S.- French resolution to be “the will of the international community.”

But Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, said that there could be no peace while Israeli soldiers remained in Lebanon. “What was agreed [the U.S.-French resolution] is not in Lebanon’s interests but against them. This will open the door to never-ending war,” he said.