Russia urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to adopt an interim resolution calling for "humanitarian cessation of fire" in Lebanon, if it fails quickly to overcome differences over a wider document, Reuters reported. Beirut has objected to a draft Council resolution calling for a cessation to hostilities in the nearly month-long conflict between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas because it did not contain a call for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov said in remarks posted on his ministry's website that Moscow wanted Lebanese opinion to be taken into account in the resolution co-authored by the United States and France. "Otherwise, the resolution could turn out not to work, as has happened in the past," he said. "Moreover, an unbalanced decision by the Council is fraught with risks of exploding Lebanon's fragile internal political situation." "If differences over the current project are maintained, a short Security Council resolution on a humanitarian cessation of fire should be urgently adopted as aninterim step," Denisov added. He did not expand further on the idea.
