BEIRUT, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese leaders on Wednesday renewed the country's commitment to the joint U.S.-French call for an immediate ceasefire, and agreed to initiate steps to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati read the joint statement following his meeting with Nabih Berri, parliament speaker and leader of the Shiite Amal Movement, and Walid Jumblatt, Druze leader and former head of the Progressive Socialist Party.
The leaders agreed to "condemn and denounce the brutal aggression launched by the criminal Israeli enemy against the Lebanese people," which "persists in its crimes in Palestine as well as in Lebanon and seeks to plunge the region into the furnace of a regional war," the statement said.
It also stressed "the importance of the Lebanese unity in confronting this aggression," calling on the international community to assume their responsibilities and respond to the requirements of the support plan proposed by the government emergency committee as soon as possible.
UN Resolution 1701 of 2006 put an end to the 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah. It stipulated a cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon, and the deployment of an additional force in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon to monitor the cessation of hostilities in coordination with the Lebanese army. ■
