The Security Council adopted a resolution this afternoon which had been introduced by the United States calling upon Israel to cease its military action in south Lebanon and to immediately withdraw its forces from that area. The Council also agreed to establish immediately a United Nations interim force in the area taken over by Israel. Twelve of the 15 Council members voted in favor of the resolution. The Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia abstained and China declined to participate.
According to the resolution, the UN force would be deployed in south Lebanon “for the purpose of confirming the withdrawal of Israeli forces, restoring international peace and security and assisting the government of Lebanon in ensuring the return of its effective authority in the area.” The resolution did not give a time limit for Israeli withdrawal or for the interim UN force.
Soviet Ambassador Oleg Troyanovsky complained before the vote was taken that the U.S. had refused to include in the resolution his proposal that a time limit be placed on the life of the UN force. But American Ambassador Andrew Young said, in introducing the resolution last night, that the UN mission would be over when peace was restored and the Lebanese government had established its authority over the area. The U.S. reportedly wanted the resolution approved before the arrival of Premier Menachem Begin in the U.S. today.
(Begin, who was en route to the U.S. when the Council action was taken, said at Ben Gurion Airport prior to his departure this morning that Israel did not think very highly of the American plan. “We have some suggestions of our own on this subject,” he said. But he did not reveal what they are.)
HERZOG CITES FAILURE TO CONDEMN PLO TERROR
Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog told the Council today that his government was ready to begin immediate negotiations on ways of returning south Lebanon to control of the Lebanese government. But Herzog criticized the resolution as being inadequate because “in keeping with the time-honored tradition of this organization, there is not one word of condemnation of terrorism and the horrible terrorist outrages committed against Israel.”
He said while the resolution called for Israeli withdrawal it failed to demand that the terrorist elements be barred from the area of south Lebanon where they had usurped Lebanese authority.
“Whatever arrangements may be negotiated and concluded with Israel and Lebanon,” Herzog stressed, “they must prevent renewed strife, vengeance and terrorism once and for all either against Israel or against any element of the population in south Lebanon. To this end, Israel is prepared to begin immediate discussions to achieve appropriate arrangements for the return of the area presently under our control to full Lebanese sovereignty and effective control.”
UN TROOPS READY TO MOVE WITHIN 36 HOURS
The Council resolution ordered Secretary General Kurt Waldheim to complete plans to send a UN force to Lebanon within 24 hours. He reportedly already has plans made and the first troops should be on their way within 36 hours. Canada, Norway and Australia have reportedly offered troops and Britain has offered its bases at Cyprus for use as staging areas. Transportation will reportedly be supplied by the U.S. (In Jerusalem, officials expressed concern over the likely nature of the UN force. See P. 3.)
Today’s Council session was the third since both Israel and Lebanon requested meetings Friday. Israel asked the Council to consider the “continuous acts of terror and violence against Israeli civilians, together with the frequent shelling, sabotage incursions, bombings and murder being perpetrated from Lebanese territory against Israel.” Lebanon charged that Israel’s incursion into its territory was “naked aggression.”
Herzog told the Council Friday night that the southern border area with Lebanon had been free of violence until the Palestine Liberation Organization moved into the area after its expulsion from Jordan in 1971. The PLO was allowed to participate in the Council debate over the objections of the U.S.
STATE DEPARTMENT ACTION
The U.S. resolution followed a statement by the State. Department late last Thursday in which it called on Israel to withdraw and suggested the idea of an arrangement in southern Lebanon that could use the UN. The statement was issued after the Senate had approved the first of the two Panama Canal treaties.
The U.S. statement noted that President Carter and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance “deplore this new cycle of violence which erupted in the tragic killings in Israel last Saturday (March II) and continued with the military action and tragic loss of innocent civilian lives in Lebanon over the past two days.” The U.S. stressed that “the only real solution” to the problems which caused Mideast violence “lies in the broader search for a comprehensive settlement” of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
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