Leaders divided on need for immediate ceasefire
Top US and European officials today called for an end to the violence in Israel and Lebanon and the establishment of an international force to keep the peace – but they did not unanimously call for an immediate ceasefire or provide details on the proposed force.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had been under pressure to lean on Israel to end its two-week-old offensive, maintained that any ceasefire must be “sustainable” and that there could be “no return to the status quo ante.”
Her wording suggested continued US support for Israel’s demand that the violence must end with the Hezbollah militia disarmed or at least removed from its border.
That position has set the US, as well as Britain, apart from most of the others at the table – who, while supporting the goals, want Israel’s devastating offensive to first end.
Lebanese prime minister Fuad Saniora, who attended and issued a dramatic appeal for peace, said the Rome conference made “some progress” – but pleaded with world leaders to keep working toward an immediate ceasefire.
“The more we delay the ceasefire, the more we are going to witness more being killed, more destruction and more aggression against the civilians in Lebanon,” he said.
The Rome conference appears to have formalised the numerous proposals to establish a new multinational force for southern Lebanon – one far tougher than the existing, three-decade-old UNIFIL operation, which has lacked a mandate to prevent hostilities.
“What we agreed upon is that there should be an international force under a UN mandate that will have a strong and robust capability to help bring about peace, to help provide the ability for humanitarian efforts to go forward and to bring an end to the violence,” Rice told reporters.
There was no immediate response from Israel, which did not attend. Israeli officials have expressed support in principle for the deployment of an international force, recognising that the weak Lebanese government could not likely subdue the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah without assistance.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed for nations to come forward with commitments to contribute troops for a force “that may eventually be sent to the region to help stabilise southern Lebanon to allow the government of Lebanon time and space to prepare its own troops and be able to extend its authority throughout the country.”
Rice said the force’s mandate would be discussed “over the next … several days”. She added: “We also have asked that those meetings be held urgently so that force can be put together.”
Annan said the emerging force would help Lebanon assert its authority and implement existing UN resolutions which would leave Hezbollah ultimately disarmed.
“We are all agreed that we want most urgently to end the violence on a basis that this time will be sustainable, because unfortunately this is a region that has had too many broken ceasefires, too many spasms of violence followed then by other spasms of violence,” Rice told reporters.
She also pointed a finger at Iran for stoking the violence.
Apparently alluding to his differences with Rice, Italian foreign minister Massimo D’Alema said many of the participants appealed for an immediate and unconditional truce – “to reach, with utmost urgency, a cease-fire that puts an end to the current violence and hostilities”.
“To obtain this objective, you must exercise pressure on all parties involved, directly and indirectly, on who can exercise influence on Hezbollah and on Israel,” he said, adding that “we asked Israel for maximum restraint” to respect civilians and infrastructure.
French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said at a separate news conference that France pushed for language calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities. But Rice’s insistence that it say only to “work immediately for the cessation of hostilities” ultimately won out.
“I regret that in the chairman’s statement (D’Alema’s statement) there is not a call for an immediate ceasefire,” Douste-Blazy said.
The foreign ministers and other senior officials from 15 nations, as well as Annan and representatives from the European Union and the World Bank, agreed on a declaration that expressed “deep concern” for the high number of civilian casualties in Lebanon, where government officials say hundreds of people have been killed.
They called on Israel to exercise “utmost restraint”, deplored the destruction of infrastructure in the country, and agreed on a donors’ conference to provide humanitarian aid.
Saniora said the violence has brought his country – still rebuilding from its 1975-1990 civil war – “to its knees.”
He recognised that Israel’s offensive had been sparked by Hezbollah’s incursion across the “blue line” – the border recognised by the United Nations - two weeks ago when it killed eight soldiers and kidnapped two, but added that the resultant offensive was “disproportionate”.
The Western-leaning moderate also appealed to Israel to enter a peace process with all of its Arab neighbours – striking a markedly different tone from many previous Lebanese leaders.
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