“Prevention of a ceasefire in Lebanon is an eternal disgrace, a stain on the United Nations Security Council’s men headed by the criminal America,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.
“The US, Britain and some other powers are using their tool, the Zionist regime, to create the Greater Mideast, imposing war to Lebanon. They are partners in Israel’s crimes.”
On July 12, Lebanese Hezbollah fighters captured two Israeli soldiers during a deadly cross-border raid from southern Lebanon.
That operation prompted a massive Israeli offensive by air, land and sea in which more than 820 Lebanese and 50 Israelis have been killed, more than 3,000 wounded and tens of thousands forced to flee their homes, according to various sources.
Ambassadors from the five UN Security Council permanent members and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan held what were described as “frank discussions” on the Middle East crisis in New York on Tuesday.
But the five — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — were unable to agree on a resolution amid differences over the sequence of any ceasefire and the deployment of an international force.
