Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Saturday that Egypt welcomed the newly-passed UN Security Council resolution on a ceasefire in Lebanon, the official MENA news agency reported.

Abul Gheit said that Israel must show full and absolute commitments to the resolution and immediately end all hostilities, adding that a complete ceasefire would set the stage for laying the groundwork for a future political settlement.

The Egyptian official urged that the first condition for realizing such a settlement was Israel's commitment to a complete pullback from the Lebanese territories, which it had overran since July 12 when the Hezbollah-Israel fighting began.

Such a withdrawal would pave the way for the return of control over the south and all parts of Lebanon to the Lebanese army and eventually allow for the return of the displaced and the resumption of international relief operations, said Abul Gheit.

He said that Israel's respect to Resolution 1701 would facilitate the start of a massive operation to rebuild the devastated country and heal the sufferings of the Lebanese.

Abul Gheit called upon the international community to shoulder its full responsibility towards ending the humanitarian disaster in Lebanon as soon as possible.

He also called for opening inquiries into the massacres and other crimes against humanity that were perpetrated by Israel in Lebanon, according to MENA.

On Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1701, calling for Israeli troops withdrawal and authorizing an increase of the existing UN force in Lebanon to 15, 000 troops to help Lebanese troops take control of south Lebanon as Israel withdraws.

France and the United States, co-sponsors of the draft resolution, came up with a compromise final version after days of hard wrangling. And the resolution has left out some key demands from both Israel and Lebanon in efforts to produce a workable arrangement.

Source: Xinhua