The US State Department has completed a preliminary report on whether Israel misused US-made cluster bombs in civilian areas of Lebanon.
State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said on Saturday the report will have been forwarded to Congress today, but declined to disclose the findings, emphasizing that they are preliminary.
"We take our obligations under the Arms Control Act seriously," said Cooper. "Our forwarding to Congress of a preliminary assessment is an indication of that. The Israeli government is also taking quite seriously their responsibility in providing information," Cooper said. "We are not making a final judgment."
The State Department is required to notify Congress of even preliminary findings of possible violations of the act cited by Cooper.
The New York Times reported on its Internet site on Saturday evening that the report will say Israel may have violated agreements with the US by its use of US-supplied cluster munitions during last year's war.
The paper described disagreement among midlevel officials at the Defense Department and the State Department, with some in both departments arguing that Israel violated US prohibitions on using cluster munitions against population areas.
Others in both departments argued that the weapons were used in self-defense to stop Hezbollah rocket attacks and that, at worst, only a technical violation may have occurred.
A congressional investigation found Israel improperly used US-made cluster bombs during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Former US president Ronald Reagan's administration then imposed a six-year ban on further sales of the weapons to Israel.
Such sanctions are largely symbolic since Israel also makes its own cluster munitions.
Relief organizations and the UN mine office have reported finding evidence that Israel used three types of US-made cluster bombs during the 34-day war with Hezbollah militants, during which both sides fired rockets into populated areas.
The UN mine office has said it had found hundreds of bomblets of the types made by the US among unexploded ordnance recovered in nearly 250 locations in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli army has said all weapons it uses "are legal under international law and their use conforms with international standards."
Israel said it was forced to hit civilian targets in Lebanon because Hezbollah fighters were using villages as bases for rocket launchers aimed at Israel. At least 850 Lebanese and 157 Israelis died in the fighting.
The Bush administration warned Israel to avoid civilian casualties, but refrained from direct criticism of Israeli tactics.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS