AP exclusive interview with UNTSO general

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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SHOTLIST 1. Wide shot of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) staff in Haifa Rambam hospital ward 2. Brigadier General Clive Lilley, UNTSO (United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation) Chief of Staff and convoy meeting hospital staff 3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Brigadier General Clive Lilley, UNTSO Chief of Staff "We are still waiting on the Security Council to approve the necessary mandates and I have no knowledge whether the contributing countries of the United Nations are prepared to put in forces, and what those forces are at this point." Q: "Do you think it's a good decision, the UN (Multinational Force) to come to the area?" A: "We certainly need to have peace in the area, and a cessation of hostilities - that would be a good decision." 4. General walking through hospital corridor 5. UN vehicle waiting for general 6. General getting into vehicle and leaving STORYLINE The United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation chief of staff said on Tuesday that the deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force to southern Lebanon would be a "good decision". "We certainly need to have peace in the area, and a cessation of hostilities - that would be a good decision," said Brigadier general Clive Lilley. Lilley said that the Security Council needed to approve the necessary mandates for a force to be deployed, adding that a cessation of hostilities in the region was needed. Lilley, speaking while visiting wounded UN soldiers at a hospital in Haifa, northern Israel, is likely to be the man responsible for any UNTSO forces deployed to the Israel-Lebanon border. Attempts elsewhere to draw a cease-fire blueprint have come down to a test between a step-by-step proposal backed by Washington and Lebanon's insistence, supported by Arab allies, that nothing can happen before Israeli soldiers leave. In New York, Arab envoys and UN Security Council members are attempting to hammer out a compromise. Lebanon has put its offers on the table: pledging up to 15,000 troops to a possible peacekeeping mission in the south and saying Hezbollah's days of running a state within a state would end. The military plan had added significance since it has the backing of two Hezbollah members on Lebanon's Cabinet, suggesting a willingness for some lasting pact by the Islamic militants and their main sponsors, Iran and Syria. The Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has called the proposed Lebanese troop deployment «interesting» and said Israel would favour leaving southern Lebanon once it decides Hezbollah is no longer a direct threat. UNTSO military observers will meanwhile continue in their role in the Middle East, monitoring ceasefires, supervising armistice agreements, preventing isolated incidents from escalating and assisting other UN peacekeeping operations, namely UNIFIL, in the region . You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/78f1be768b5c56a3bc281e838acf73db Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork