UNITED NATIONS – With its political fortunes worsening, Hezbollah has intensified its anti-Israel military drive over the past few days. But violence designed to marshal internal Lebanese support may have backfired as the U.N. Security Council started discussions yesterday about disarming the Iranian-and Syrian-backed terrorist group.

The escalation along the Israeli-Lebanese border, which killed one Israeli soldier and an unknown number of Hezbollah terrorists, continued into last night, as mortar fire was exchanged and Israeli jets attacked Hezbollah targets. The Israeli army tried to locate a Hezbollah terror cell responsible for an infiltration that, according to several Israeli press accounts, was designed for a spectacular terror attack, such as the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers to use them as bargaining tools.

Hezbollah’s initiation of renewed fighting came as its political fortunes grew shaky. Yesterday, an anti-Syrian former finance minister, Fuad Siniora, was named as Lebanon’s new prime minister. “Lebanon has paid dearly to win its freedom and build a democratic and sovereign state,” the 62-year-old Mr. Siniora said, according to the French news agency Agence France-Presse. He called for political factions in the nation to unite.

Following a briefing on the days’ events, the Security Council yesterday issued a statement accepted unanimously by its 15 members calling on the Lebanese government “to extend its control over all its territory, including through the deployment of Lebanese armed forces, to exert its monopoly on the use of force,” and to end attacks, such as the one initiated Tuesday by Hezbollah.

Some members of the council resisted America’s attempt to mention in the statement a previous resolution that called to disarm all militias in Lebanon, according to the acting American ambassador to the United Nations, Anne Patterson. Other diplomats said that France, which so far has been America’s partner on Lebanon, led the opposition.

The special council meeting yesterday began on Wednesday when Israel’s ambassador, Dan Gillerman, urged France and America to convene the body following two days of escalating battles between Israel and Hezbollah.

“The facts are clear. The incident started with Hezbollah,” the French ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, said after yesterday’s briefing by the head of the U.N. peacekeeping department, Jean-Marie Guehenno.

According to a chronology compiled by the Israeli Defense Force and seen by The New York Sun, “five Hezbollah terrorists infiltrated from Lebanon into Israel” Tuesday evening at Shabaa farms, or Mount Dov, which according to the United Nations is on the Israeli side of the border.

The terror cell was identified by the IDF the following day, the army account read, and an elite unit was dispatched to engage the infiltrators. Then, “in attempt to extricate the terrorist cell,” Hezbollah began an artillery barrage along the border, into Israel’s territory. An Israeli soldier, Uzi Peretz, was killed, and four others were injured.

Political alliances in Lebanon have shifted dramatically on the heels of last month’s election. A powerful Maronite-Christian and former general, Michel Aoun, this week met with the son of the slain former prime minister Rafik Hariri, Saad, who has emerged as a new leader of the anti-Syrian political forces in Lebanon. Mr. Aoun signaled that he, too, now intends to join the anti-Syrian movement. Hezbollah relies heavily on its Syrian alliance.

In another blow to the Shiite group, America indicated this week that it would begin disarming the group in accordance with Security Council resolution 1559. America and France had agreed to delay that element of the resolution until after the Lebanese election and concentrate on other stipulations, such as the withdrawal from Lebanon by Syrian forces.

“We’re now after the election,” Ambassador Patterson told the Sun yesterday. “We were always planning to implement 1559 sequentially.” Secretary of State Rice discussed disarming Hezbollah with Secretary-General Annan during her U.N. visit this week.

Mr. de La Sabliere said that while France strongly supports the implementation of the resolution, the disarmament of Hezbollah should be implemented through an “inter-Lebanese dialogue.”