Rebuffed Rice visits Israel with ceasefire plan
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will lobby Israeli leaders today in an attempt to silence the guns and halt the bloodshed on both sides of the Lebanese border.
But America’s top diplomat was rebuffed sharply on a surprise visit to Beirut yesterday, where she tried to push a blanket plan that would call for a ceasefire and simultaneous deployment of international and Lebanese troops intosouthern Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
Hezbollah’s de facto negotiator, parliament speaker Nabih Berri, rejected the idea and said a ceasefire should be immediate, leaving the other issues for much later. Western-backed prime minister Fuad Saniora took a similar stance and complained bitterly to Rice about the destruction wreaked by US ally Israel.
Israel “is taking Lebanon backward 50 years and the result will be Lebanon’s destruction”, he told Rice.
After arriving in Israel last night, Rice defended the need to ensure Hezbollah was dislodged from the border before any ceasefire was reached.
“Every peace has to be based on enduring principles,” she said.
Meanwhile, backed by tanks, Israeli troops battled their way to a key Hezbollah stronghold in south Lebanon, seizing a hilltop in heavy fighting and capturing two guerillas.
The United Nations’ humanitarian chief Jan Egeland issued an urgent appeal for £83 million in aid to Lebanon as the relief effort geared up. Two ships docked at Beirut and convoys entered from Syria, bearing blankets, food, medicine – and two convys of trucks took material to the worst-hit areas in the south along dangerous and broken roads.
Israel appeared to be easing bombardment in populated areas and roads in Leanon that has killed hundreds, displaced as many as 750,000 and dismembered the transportation network. Instead, it appeared to be focusing its firepower on Hezbollah at the front. Beirut saw no strikes all day yesterday in apparent deference to Rice’s visit.
Lebanese security officials reported three civilian deaths, without specifying where they occurred. Thirty strikes in and around towns and on roads were reported by security officials and Lebanese media – down from 37 the day before.
The numbers do not include strikes on Hezbollah positions that are not in populated areas. Israel reported 270 strikes on Sunday, suggesting that a large number were in more isolated regions.
Still, Hezbollah was able to launch 80 rockets into northern Israel, wounding 13 people, a rate only slightly lower than in past days.
At the front, Israeli ground forces waged a fierce battle with guerillas dug in at the closest large town to the border, Bint Jbail, known as “the capital of the resistance” for its vehement support of Hezbollah during Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation of the south.
The move into Bint Jbail, about 2.5 miles from the border, represents the spear point of Israel’s advance, moving forward from Maroun al-Ras, a frontier village captured in more heavy fighting over the weekend.
At the same time, Israeli forces were working to destroy every Hezbollah post within a half-mile of the 40-mile Israeli-Lebanese border, Major General Gadi Eizenkot said.
In Beirut, Egeland called on Israel to open the port of Tyre to let in aid ships and guarantee safe passage for relief convoys. An entry point at Tyre would get material directly into the south without a dangerous convoy drive.
“We are particularly worried about the population in south Lebanon and the (eastern) Bekaa Valley. It’s there that they’re in the crossfire and from where they’re being displaced,” he said before leaving the country.
Egeland, who criticised Israel on Sunday for its “disproportionate” strikes against civilians, roundly denounced Hezbollah yesterday for its “cowardly blending ... among women and children”.
“I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this,” he said.
