The United Nations resolution on Lebanon is only a first step in stabilizing the situation in the Middle East, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday from Crawford in the US state of Texas, according to DPA. Speaking from the ranch of US President George W Bush, Rice said the resolution was a good basis upon which to end the violence between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The US and France reached an agreement Saturday on a draft UN resolution which allows for the deployment of a multinational UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. Rice stressed that the resolution did not call for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon. She added that when the resolution is finally approved, the world would then see who would cease violence and be for peace, and who was not. Work on a second resolution would begin after the approval of the first, Rice said, without providing details as to the proposed contents of the second resolution.
