2006年VOA标准英语-Lebanon Says Hezbollah Committed to Cease-fire

By Margaret Besheer
Beirut
20 August 2006

Lebanon's defense¹ minister said Sunday he is certain Hezbollah will not violate a U.N.-brokered ceasefire with Israel, and has warned of harsh consequences for any violator in Lebanon.

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Elias Murr

Defense Minister Elias Murr's warning comes a day after Israeli commandos conducted a raid in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

Israel says it launched the mission to prevent Syria and Iran from transferring weapons to Hezbollah militants² in Lebanon. But Lebanese officials and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan criticized the operation as a violation³ of the week-old truce⁴.

Sunday, Murr said any rocket that is fired from inside Lebanese territory would be considered as collaboration⁵ with Israel, because it would provide a pretext⁶ for the Israelis to strike at Lebanon. He added that any group that breaks the cease-fire would be committing treason and would suffer the consequences.

Murr said he believes Hezbollah is committed to the U.N. resolution that ended the hostilities⁷ and would not violate it. His warning indicates he is concerned that factions⁸ other than Hezbollah, such as Palestinian groups in Lebanon, might try to draw retaliation⁹ from Israel by firing at it.

The defense minister also warned that Israel would have to fight the Lebanese army if there is another violation of the truce. The Lebanese army began deploying¹⁰ 15,000 troops to the south on Thursday. During the more than month of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanon's army did not take part in the conflict.

U.N. Envoy¹¹ Terje Roed-Larsen said in Beirut that the Israeli raid was "unhelpful" and he warned that the ceasefire is very fragile.

"We also do believe that, unfortunately, we are at a potential tilting¹² edge where things very easily within the next few weeks and months can slide out of control," said Terje Roed-Larsen.

Also Sunday, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora for the first time visited the devastated¹³ Shiite suburbs south of Beirut. He called the destruction from Israeli air strikes a crime against humanity.

Mr. Siniora said once again Lebanon will rebuild and the country would remain despite Israel's violence.

In Cairo Sunday, Arab League foreign ministers held an emergency meeting. An official said the ministers would discuss a plan to create an Arab League fund for Lebanon's reconstruction¹⁴.

1 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

2 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

3 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

4 truce   

n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束

参考例句：

• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
• She had thought of flying out to breathe the fresh air in an interval of truce.她想跑出去呼吸一下休战期间的新鲜空气。

5 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

6 pretext   

n.借口，托词

参考例句：

• He used his headache as a pretext for not going to school.他借口头疼而不去上学。
• He didn't attend that meeting under the pretext of sickness.他以生病为借口，没参加那个会议。

7 hostilities   

n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事

参考例句：

• Mexico called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. 墨西哥要求立即停止敌对行动。
• All the old hostilities resurfaced when they met again. 他们再次碰面时，过去的种种敌意又都冒了出来。

8 factions   

组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gens also lives on in the "factions." 氏族此外还继续存在于“factions〔“帮”〕中。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• rival factions within the administration 政府中的对立派别

9 retaliation   

n.报复，反击

参考例句：

• retaliation against UN workers 对联合国工作人员的报复
• He never said a single word in retaliation. 他从未说过一句反击的话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。

11 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

12 tilting   

倾斜，倾卸

参考例句：

• For some reason he thinks everyone is out to get him, but he's really just tilting at windmills. 不知为什么他觉得每个人都想害他，但其实他不过是在庸人自扰。
• So let us stop bickering within our ranks.Stop tilting at windmills. 所以，让我们结束内部间的争吵吧！再也不要去做同风车作战的蠢事了。

13 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

14 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。