Charles has a news article that quotes the UN Ambassador to Lebanon as saying that his state will be the last one to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Lebanon’s UN ambassador bitterly slammed Israel’s month-long bombardment of his country ahead of a hard-won truce, and vowed that the treaty would be Israel’s last with any Middle East country.
“Lebanon will be, I think, the last state to sign a peace treaty with Israel,†UN ambassador Nouhad Mahmoud told CNN television’s “Late Edition†program, without explaining the remark. He called the agreement a “crucial†test for all the parties involved.
“Now it is the moment of truth for everyone, and we’ll see who will abide by the Security Council resolutions and who will not, so (what) we have this week is very crucial,†Mahmoud said.
The diplomat added that the 15,000 Lebanese soldiers to be dispatched to south Lebanon to help keep the peace alongside a similarly-sized international UN force “are not going to use force†to disarm the Hezbollah militia which has been battling Israel.
“Hezbollah will just leave the area as armed elements as I understand it, and the Lebanese army will take over the whole region along with the United Nations forces,†he said.
I think it’s pretty easy to interpret. They’re sure they have the upper hand and are about to destroy Israel.
Hezbollah may think they have the upper hand, but the war they fought was more or less a defensive war. Their capabilities to fight an offensive war would be much less than their apparent effectiveness once outside the 4 meter thick bunkers. As an aside, Israel ought not be too proud of their own performance these last few weeks.
The way I read between the lines is that Lebanon will simply issue army uniforms to Hizballah, and that Iran and Syria are ready with nuclear and biological weapons.
chsw
It find it hard to interpret this statement. It seems ominous, especially in light of Iran’s August 22 statements. However another way to interpret it is much less malicious. The current cease fire is not a treaty, it is a cease fire. There is nothing signed by Israel or Lebanon. The statement may only mean that because of this conflict Lebanon is not likely to ever make an official peace treaty with Israel in the way the Egypt and Jordan have done. This is something Israel would like: to be at peace with it’s neighbors.
for GOd’s sake even Syria is making threats.Words cant describe how much Olmert sucks.
Of course Lebanon won’t ever sign a treaty with Israel. Its masters in Syria and Iran will not let it do so.
I agree with chsw, the Lebs will pretend Hizbollah is part of their army. Maybe the 15,000 Leb troops in the south will all be Hizzie gunmen. They would probably think that a good joke, till the bombs start falling again.
It seems to be beyond the limited wit of Arabs to understand, but if they stopped trying to detsroy Israel and kill the Jews they would have nothing to fear from Israel. But they won’t, for Israel’s mere existence is an affront to their excessively inflated narcissism and vanity.
This AP article totally fumbled this, I saw the interview live on TV.
The question was do you see Israel signing a peace treaty with Israel, it did not mean the cease fire, it meant a full peace..
The answer was ‘only after the wider regional issues (the canard about the palestinians) was solved and then Lebanon would agree to a peace treaty, probably being the last country to do so.’
Meaning Lebanon would be last on the list waiting for everyone else.. It was not a threat, but testament to Lebanon’s weakness.. Unlike Jordan or Egypt they can’t buck the trend.
Not that I believe Lebanon wants peace, but this was a total AP bumble of the reality of what was said.
All he meant was that even if all the arab countries do eventually sign peace treaties with Israel, Lebanon will be the last to do so because it is the smallest and weakest of all the arab countries. The phrase was actually more or less coined by Thomas Friedman in his book “From Beirut to Jerusalem”. There is no hidden creepy meaning that he expects Israel is about to be destroyed, much as I am sure he would like it.