Boutros Boutros-Ghali speaks to Al-Ahram Weekly on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 Adding smoke to Beirut blasts, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 created a lull in the fighting between Israel and Hizbullah, but it also unearthed many political quandaries and conundrums. Israel miserably failed to deliver unqualified victory. It couldn't even deal a crushing blow to Hizbullah in spite of the fact that its northern cities were bombarded. It is still too early to tell what the full political implications of UN Resolution 1701 would be. There is a new Middle East in the making, as Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad noted in a speech on Tuesday. But, it is not the New Middle East envisioned by United States President George W Bush and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It is not just the future of Lebanon, but the future of the region that is at stake. "The United Nations is in a crisis. In 1996, the UN was a far more powerful organisation than it is today. There was a concerted effort to weaken it and render it impotent," former UN secretary- general Boutros Boutros-Ghali told Al-Ahram Weekly. "The world body is persistently being criticised by the United States and yet Washington calls all the shots at the UN Security Council," he said. The former UN secretary-general questioned the credibility of the world body. Where was the UN when US troops in Mahmoudiya raped an Iraqi woman and then murdered her and three members of her family including a child in March earlier this year? Foreign intervention has failed to bring peace and prosperity in Afghanistan and Iraq. "The UN mandate needs sharper definition and greater consensus on tactics," he explained. "This has never struck me as being wholly persuasive," the former UN secretary-general added. There is, of course, no guarantee that cleaning up the mess that Israel created in Lebanon will be resolved by Resolution 1701. There are numerous unresolved issued, warned the former UN secretary-general. Yet these loose ends should not distract from the fact that for the second time the UN has come to the rescue in Lebanon. Taking on the massive task of reconstruction would greatly enhance the cause of peace in Lebanon. The UN Security Council unanimously approved the resolution and was widely praised for taking such relatively bold steps. Still there are certain grave issues that cannot be erased by the UN intervention. Boutros-Ghali insists that the Israeli massacre in Qana, for example, cannot be forgotten. "The 1996 massacre in Qana was one of the reasons that brought my career at the UN to an abrupt end," the former UN head said. "And, there is a continuity in spite of changes on the regional and international scene. Qana 2006 is reminiscent of Qana 1996," he noted. "The UN is far weaker than it was when I was its head." Political tensions related to the disarming of Hizbullah would fatally compromise the task of rebuilding the country. The UN plan is based on the deployment of 15,000 foreign troops in Lebanon, mainly French. Keeping the peace in Lebanon will be another of the global grand coalition's many tasks on the long road to stability in the region. And this is just the beginning. It looks very much as though the UN will need to increase its influence in the region, and not just in Lebanon. However, it must prove that it is a world body and not simply an instrument of US foreign policy. The best hope may lie in focussing on strengthening Lebanese national unity. That entails strengthening the Lebanese state institutions and national army. In any democracy this would be undesirable, but Lebanon is not an ordinary democracy. It is a socially unequal and politically polarised nation. The decisive victory by the Lebanese resistance irrevocably changed all that. A contested result would have been the worst possible outcome to what has been a rancorous and divisive period of fermentation in the region, and not just for Lebanon. Today Lebanon is a symbol of Arab solidarity and hope for a better future in spite of the massive destruction that Israeli bombardment exacted. Mercifully, the task of disarming Hizbullah was relinquished to a future and undefined political settlement. "We have a moral responsibility to promote equality among the UN member states," Boutros-Ghali stressed. Under normal circumstances, the winner would have to build bridges with defeated opponents. Not so in the case of Lebanon's Hizbullah. Israel will have to accept the new situation. If it doesn't, the more exposed the hypocrisy of Washington will be. The West will have to accept the current realities in the region. The Lebanese government has already accepted this principle, and so it seems have the French and two other permanent members of the UN Security Council. How ironic then, that Israel is allowed to get away literally with murder. "Human rights violations were committed and so were gross violations of humanitarian law. The manner in which Israel is permitted to strike with impunity and get away with it is disgraceful," Boutros-Ghali explained, adding: "Israel is the only country that has atomic bombs and weapons of mass destruction and yet no one dares or is allowed to question or criticise it." Interview by Gamal Nkrumah
