Special report: Clash between Israel,
Lebanon
BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations will
discuss reinforcing its peacekeeping force in Lebanon and the Arab League (AL)
is preparing for an emergency summit to avert an all-out war in the Middle East.
In Brussels, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called
on Tuesday for the establishment of a larger and stronger international force in
Lebanon than the current 2,000-strong contingent, which was created in 1978 to
monitor the Blue Line separating Israel and Lebanon and which is responsible for
reporting violations by either side.
Annan underscored that the new force would have
"different capabilities" from the present UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL),
appearing to suggest a much more powerful military presence.
He expected European and other countries to supply troops for the force, saying "it is urgent that the international community acts to make a difference on the ground."
Standing next to Annan at a news conference, EU
foreign policy chief Javier Solana said: "We are ready to help."
Several EU nations have said they were ready to
contribute forces to a Lebanon stabilization force if the U.N. Security Council
agreed to form one.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair first mentioned
such a force at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia on Monday as the only
way to achieve a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah militants
in Lebanon.
By early Wednesday, at least 237 people had been
killed in Lebanon and 25 in Israel since fighting broke out July 12 between
Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas following its capture of two Israeli
soldiers.
Beirut and southern Lebanon in particular have
suffered punishing raids by the Israeli air force. Some half-a-million people
have been displaced.
Annan said earlier that Vijay Nambiar, his special
political adviser, who had reported "constructive" talks with the Lebanese
leadership in Beirut, planned to go to Israel Tuesday and then "possibly go back
to Lebanon" and on to Damascus, Syria, in efforts to "find a way of getting the
parties to end the hostilities."
In the meantime, the AL was trying to win the support
of more Arab nations to call an emergency summit to deal with the crisis which
threatens the wider security of the region.
The idea of holding such a summit was proposed by
Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh on July 12, shortly after the Israeli army
and the Hezbollah guerilla group clashed in the border area.
Up to now, eight AL members have showed their
readiness to attend the proposed summit, namely, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Yemen,
Qatar, Lebanon, Djibouti and the Palestinians, but the number remains short of
the necessary majority of two thirds of the 22 league members.
AL Secretary-General Amr Moussa said in a statement
on Monday that the Middle East peace process had failed and it was important to
refer the whole Middle East crisis to the UN Security Council.
Moussa said the Arabs were not seeking a UN Security
Council draft resolution or statements, instead, the Arabs would like the
Security Council to have a clear and accurate political review of all the
regional issues.
Tensions in the Middle East have been dramatically
heightened as Israel has pressed ahead with a massive assault in Lebanon since
July 12 and continued a three-week-old offensive in the GazaStrip.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora pleaded on
Tuesday for the international community to organize an immediate ceasefire,
accusing Israel of massacres and wanting to blast his country "back 50 years."
In a statement, he "implored the international
community and the Arab countries to work toward installing an immediate
ceasefire" to end Israel's week-old offensive against Lebanon.
The Syrian cabinet emphasized on Tuesday its
readiness in all fields to face all future scenarios as Israel continued to bomb
neighboring Lebanon for the seventh day.
Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Ottri underlined
"the importance of coordination and integration of government performance" to
upgrade the state of readiness in all sectors in order to "face all prospects in
the future", the official SANA news agency reported.
Chairing a weekly cabinet meeting, the premier hailed
the steadfastness of the national resistance in Lebanon and its qualitative
operations that had inflicted grave loss on the Jewish state.
Egypt called for an immediate and unconditional
ceasefire.
"Israel will not emerge as a victor in this war. It
will only create more enemies," said President Hosni Mubarak. "The war will only
inflame Arab animosity toward Israel, many anti-Israel extremist forces will
surface and Israel will find itself the loser rather than the victor in this
war."
While warning Israel against more military
operations, Mubarak also cautioned that other countries should resort to "wise
judgment" in light of the conflict.
Shortly after the Israeli-Hezbollah clashes on the
border area on Wednesday, Mubarak made phone calls to or met face-to-face with
leaders of Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Bahrain to discuss the
conflict.
Egypt, one of the only two Arab countries to have a
peace treaty with Israel, has long played the role of mediator in regional
problems, especially in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday called for
maximum humanitarian aid to be brought to Lebanon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called for
calm in the Middle East.
"The main thing now is to stop the worsening of the
conflict, [to] not allow extremists to bring chaos to the region, and to prevent
a wider conflict," Putin told a press conference at the end of the three-day G-8
summit.
The Russian president urged the return of the two
Israeli soldiers, saying "we would very much like to see the speedy return of
the kidnapped and a stop to the bloodshed."
"But I am also not confident that the return of
soldiers will stop the conflict," said the G8 summit host.
As world leaders tried frantically to use their
influence to try to avert an all-out war in the Middle East, U.S. President
George W. Bush was moving with care.
The Bush administration is trying to drum up
diplomatic support for a so-called ceasefire of "lasting value," that is, where
the Lebanese army takes control of the south and disarms the Hezbollah militia.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has
conferred by phone with Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and at the State
Department with Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit of Egypt.
She will probably travel to the area this weekend,
but there has been no announcement.
Israel did not rule out negotiations, but Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to continue operations in Lebanon until Hezbollah
returned the two captured Israeli soldiers, stopped rocket attacks on Israel and
pulled back from the borders that Lebanon shares with his nation.
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