The United Nations Security Council Wednesday voted to extend the mandate to deploy United Nations Interim Forces (UNIFIL) in Lebanon, as Israel and Lebanon exchanged sharp criticism of each other.

The Israeli acting envoy, Daniel Carmon, charged that Lebanon has allowed Hizbullah to take on a more dominant role in its government and that it has deployed its army with more advanced weapons and in larger quantities than it possessed before the Second Lebanon War.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman charged that Israel has violated the ceasefire resolution that ended the war.