Lebanon puts cost of raids at $2 Billion
ft.com
By Roula Khalaf and Ferry Biedermann in Beirut
Last updated: July 19 2006 10:45
Washington has given Israel a limited timeframe to achieve its “clear goal” in disabling Hizbollah with assurances from the US that Israel would be allowed to defend itself, as the conflict entered its eighth day.
Lebanon’s finance minister said on Tuesday Israel’s military offensive in Lebanon had caused up to $2bn in infrastructure damage, as a trail of devastating raids continued across the country on Wednesday.
With a free hand until the expected arrival of Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, in the region sometime in the next week, the relentless Israeli bombardment is driving up Lebanon’s soaring reconstruction costs each day it continues.
Heavy Israeli shelling in the south and east of Lebanon on Wednesday killed 47 civilians as thousands awaited evacuation from the conflict zone. The army said its ground forces have crossed into southern Lebanon to target Hizbollah in “restricted” attacks while Israeli air strikes pounded the group’s Beirut stronghold and the Shweifat area outside the capital. Lebanese authorities say over 280 have died, mainly civilians, while Israel says 25 Israelis have died, including 13 civilians.
As Israeli warplanes bombed army bases and hit trucks taking medical supplies from the United Arab Emirates on the Beirut-Damascus highway on Tuesday, Jihad Azour, the finance minister, told the FT the government was scrambling to assess the damage, and the costs were growing by the hour.
“We’re talking billions of dollars in terms of infrastructure – exceeding $1.5bn to $2bn,” Mr Azour said, citing attacks on roads, bridges, telecommunications, electricity, ports, airports and even private sector facilities, including a milk factory and food warehouses.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has received reports of 50,000 to 60,000 internally displaced people who have fled from the heavily Shia-populated south of Lebanon and southern suburbs of Beirut, areas that have suffered most under the Israeli attacks.
Mr Azour said Israel’s objective had gone far beyond the return of the two soldiers that militants from Hizbollah, Lebanon’s largest Shia party, had captured last Wednesday in a cross-border raid.
“In five days we went from daylight to nightmare: the destruction is not targeting one group and it’s not only making Hizbollah pay. It’s making all of Lebanese society suffer,” he said.
His comments came as diplomatic efforts aimed at brokering a ceasefire shifted to Israel.
Ehud Olmert, Israeli prime minister, said after meeting a United Nations delegation in Jerusalem that “Israel will continue to combat Hizbollah and will continue to strike targets of the group” until two captured soldiers were released, Lebanese troops were deployed along the border and the guerrilla group disarmed.
The UN delegation put forward a ceasefire package including a proposed international force that Israel had rejected because of fears it would hamper its military capability. However, Tzipi Livni, Israeli foreign minister, said on Tuesday Israel might not object to a temporary force.
Mr Azour said that, based on the pattern of attacks, Israel was slicing the country in different parts and isolating in particular the south and the eastern Baalbek region, a Hizbollah stronghold, in addition to a complete blockade of the country by sea, air and land.
The government, he said, was struggling to organise food deliveries and services to these regions. Indeed, according to the ICRC, some villages in the south were now completely cut off. Although supplies, including medicine, were available they were often not reaching their destination.
The broader economic impact of the Israeli offensive was also substantial in a country that spent more than a decade in reconstruction after the 1975-1991 civil war.
Mr Azour said Lebanon had been expecting the best tourism season since 1974 and the economy was projected to grow by more than 5 per cent as the oil boom in the Gulf generated foreign direct investment and greater tourism receipts.
Banks on Tuesday were severely restricting the withdrawal of dollars from accounts, amid rising concerns that people would rush to change Lebanese pounds into dollars.
Mr Azour said there was a limited amount of dollar bank notes in the system and insisted that central bank foreign currency reserves of $13bn, more than 18 months of imports, would help keep any pressure on the Lebanese pound under control.
Additional reporting by Sharmila Devi in Jerusalem |
