Russia says UN weakened by US support of Israel

MOSCOW, Aug 2: Russia and other UN Security Council members are unhappy Washington is blocking attempts to pressure Israel over its offensive in Lebanon, its ambassador to the United Nations said.

Vitaly Churkin told the Izvestia newspaper in an interview published today the US position had weakened the position of the United Nations on the crisis.

''Discontent has been rising recently among Security Council member countries with the fact that the US is prepared to block any decision which would bring pressure to bear on Israel,'' Churkin said.

''This discontent is expressed practically every day by many delegations during consultations on Lebanon,'' he said.

Churkin said that when Council members discussed Israel's killing of four unarmed UN peacekeepers, US officials had removed any words that could cast a shadow on Israel's action.

The three-week-old war in Lebanon, sparked when Hizbollah militants seized two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, has killed 646 people in Lebanon and 54 Israelis.

Israel says it will not stop fighting until an international force is in place in southern Lebanon but the UN Security Council has yet to agree on a mandate for such a force.

Churkin said Russia had to understand the composition of such a force before supporting it.

When asked about the humanitarian situation in Lebanon, Churkin said: ''Russia insists that a ceasefire in Lebanon to allow the resolution of humanitarian problems should be reached as soon as possible.

''The Americans and the English have a rather different position. But there are some signs that the U.S. is starting to understand that it must work towards ending this bloody nightmare.'' Britain has stuck closely to the US line that a ceasefire must be ''sustainable'' -- seen by some critics as a green light for Israel to go on bombing Lebanon.

Russia is a permanent, veto-wielding member of the security council along with Britain, China, France and the United States.

REUTERS