UNITED NATIONS, July 19 (UPI) -- With Israel vowing to continue its assault on Lebanon, and with the barrage of Katyusha rockets coming across the Lebanese border into Israel unabated, the United Nations is taking the lead in diplomatic efforts aimed at defusing the situation.
The only problem is, it's not clear the U.N. Security Council is prepared to follow suit.
In Brussels Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised a team of envoys he dispatched to discuss a diplomatic resolution to the crisis, renewing his call for a U.N. stabilization force to be deployed in the region.
Last weekend's Group of Eight summit outside St. Petersburg, Russia -- already dominated by the unfolding crisis in the Middle East -- ended with some of the world's top leaders deferring the matter to the U.N. Security Council. Specifically, Annan was joined in a press conference by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to call on the Security Council to mandate an international stabilization force, which would be much larger than the current 2,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force already in the south. That force, established in 1978, has been criticized as ineffectual when it came to preventing Hezbollah domination in southern Lebanon.
A high-level U.N. delegation, dispatched July 13 by Annan, is meanwhile expected shortly to wind up its week-long tour of major Middle Eastern capitals. The team, which met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni Tuesday, is traveling next to Gaza.
"The U.N. delegation has presented concrete ideas on how to resolve the current crisis and reach an end of hostilities," Terje Roed-Larsen, a member of the team, said in a statement following their meeting with Livni. Those ideas, he added, had already been presented to Livni's Lebanese counterparts.
The U.N. Security Council, which expressed its support for the delegation, has tabled any action on the crisis until after they are briefed on gains made during the trip. That briefing was to occur late this week. But with new meetings continuously being added to the itinerary, the spokesman for the secretary-general warned that no date has yet been set in stone.
But while U.N. leaders from the secretary-general to humanitarian chief Jan Egeland are advocating a peaceful solution to the crisis, and the protection of civilians caught in the crossfire, it seems unlikely that the Security Council will choose to rein in Israel.
So far, only France and Russia have condemned Israel for excessive use of force.
In a joint press conference with the Egyptian foreign minister, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that a cease-fire would be appropriate only once conditions are "conducive."
And speaking to reporters Monday before a round of discussions got underway -- the third round since July 14 -- U.S. Ambassador John Bolton appeared to have little enthusiasm for either a stabilizing force or a cease-fire.
"Would such a force be empowered to deal with the real problem?" he asked. "The real problem is Hezbollah."
Bolton questioned whether a new mission would be more successful than the interim force and, indirectly, how effective a force could be if it did not deal with Iran and Syria, which the United States has called Hezbollah's principal sponsors.
"Would it be empowered to deal with countries like Syria and Iran that support Hezbollah?" Bolton said.
Israel, too, has rejected the idea of a cease-fire, at least until after Hezbollah returns the two Israeli soldiers it took captive in an incursion across the Blue Line, the border between northern Israel and southern Lebanon, and which precipitated the present conflict.
Outside U.N. world headquarters in New York, thousands gathered Monday to demonstrate America's solidarity with Israel, condemn Hezbollah and its state sponsors, Iran and Syria, and to draw a parallel between the American and Israeli struggles against terror.
Saying he was speaking directly to those gathered at the United Nations, Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman drew thunderous applause when he called out: "You know better than anyone else what we're doing is your own work, fighting terror!"
U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., also attended the rally, alongside author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
She voiced solidarity with Israel, and singled out Iran and Syria as villains. America, she said, will support Israel in its efforts "to send a message to Hamas, Hezbollah, to the Syrians, to the Iranians -- to all who seek death and domination instead of life and freedom.
"The United States -- our government and people -- will stand by Israel. We will stand by Israel because Israel is standing for American values as well as Israeli ones," she said.
