NEWS: Hezbollah accuses Rice of favoring Israel on trip
Secretary of state to offer U.S. peace proposal to Israeli, Lebanese officials
Reuters
URL: msnbc.msn.com
Updated: 1:30 p.m. MT July 29, 2006
JERUSALEM - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice started talks in Israel on Saturday to seek a deal on an international force to end fighting in Lebanon but Hezbollah charged her trip would only serve Israeli interests.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed more attacks on Israel’s cities if it did not end an offensive launched after the guerrilla group captured two soldiers in a raid on July 12.
“Rice is returning to the region to try to impose her conditions on Lebanon again to serve her new Middle East project and to serve Israel,” Nasrallah said in a televised address, as Rice made her second trip to Israel this week.
Rice, who dined with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Saturday evening, said she hoped for agreement on the main conditions for a ceasefire to be outlined in a U.N. resolution that could be tabled as early as Tuesday.
“I expect the discussions to be difficult, but there will have to be give and take,” Rice told reporters en route to Jerusalem.
“I assume and have every reason to believe that leadership on both sides of this crisis would like to see it end.”
Israel rejected as unnecessary a United Nations plea for a three-day truce to aid civilians trapped by fighting.
In the latest fighting, an Israeli air strike killed a woman and six children in a house in the southern village of Nmeiriya, medics said. Meanwhile, Israel’s forces pulled out of the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil, just across the border.
At least 469 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon in the conflict, and 51 Israelis have died.
Praise for Lebanon
Rice welcomed an agreement on Thursday by Hezbollah cabinet members in Lebanon to seek an immediate ceasefire that would include the disarming of militias, and praised Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora for persuading Hezbollah to agree.
Lebanon’s Siniora, whom Rice will meet during her stay in the Middle East, argues that the main issues to be resolved include Israel’s occupation of the disputed Shebaa Farms area, claimed by Lebanon, and its detention of Lebanese prisoners.
In a softening of Israel’s position that could help Rice steer the sides towards a ceasefire, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Israel would not demand the immediate disarming of Hezbollah, although it still wants it disarmed eventually.
The official said Israel would demand that the proposed international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon keep Hezbollah away from the Israeli border and prevent the group from replenishing its stockpile of rockets from Syria and Iran.
Hezbollah would almost certainly have rejected a peacekeeping force whose mandate calls for its disarmament.
U.N. to consider international force
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called a meeting in New York on Monday to get troop contributions for an international force, which could be 15,000-20,000 strong, even though its mandate has yet to be set by the Security Council.
The guerrilla group launched long-range missiles deeper into Israel on Friday, fulfilling Nasrallah’s pledge to hit targets further south than Israel’s third largest city Haifa.
“The Israelis are ready to halt the aggression because they are afraid of the unknown,” Nasrallah said. “The one pushing for the continuation of the aggression is the U.S. administration.”
Hezbollah fired more than 90 rockets from southern Lebanon into northern Israel on Saturday, lightly wounding about a dozen people, the army and medics said. They have launched more than 1,500 rockets into Israel since the conflict started.
U.S. criticized for not stepping up
Rice’s visit comes as the United States has faced mounting criticism for not calling for an immediate ceasefire and for giving Israel an apparent green light to continue pounding Lebanese targets, leading to more civilian deaths.
President George W. Bush has blamed Hezbollah and its main allies Syria and Iran for the conflict in Lebanon.
“As we work to resolve this current crisis, we must recognise that Lebanon is the latest flashpoint in a broader struggle between freedom and terror that is unfolding across the region,” Bush said in his weekly radio address.
Israeli air strikes cut Lebanon’s main road to Damascus on Saturday, while Israel said its forces had killed around 70 to 80 Hezbollah guerrillas in fighting in southern Lebanon over the past few days. Hezbollah says only 31 of its fighters have died since the start of the 18-day-old conflict.
Israel dismissed a U.N. proposal for a three-day truce to let relief workers reach stricken civilians and deliver emergency aid, saying it was already allowing aid to flow.
While Israel has let aid shipments through its blockade of Lebanon, international relief agencies say they have been unable to get Israel to guarantee safe passage to civilians in southern areas hardest hit by Israeli bombing aimed at Hezbollah.
URL: msnbc.msn.com |
