Syria on Wednesday opposed deployment of an international force
along its border to prevent arms shipments to Hezbollah, and Israel
called the situation in Lebanon "explosive." A cease-fire was
further shaken by artillery shells and explosions that killed three
Lebanese soldiers and an Israeli.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora asked the US to help lift
an Israeli blockade on his country's coast and airport, something
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said would not happen until UN
troops deployed along the Lebanon-Syria border to block the flow of
weapons. Hezbollah's vast arsenal of rockets and other weapons,
much of which is believed to originate in Iran, reaches the
guerrillas across the Syrian border.
European Union ambassadors and deputies met in Brussels,
Belgium, to drum up volunteers for the force, but tentative pledges
reached just 4,200 troops by Wednesday, far short of the 15,000
called for by the UN cease-fire resolution. Deployment was likely
take weeks or months.
Meanwhile, Syria indicated it might impose a blockade of its
own.
"They will close their borders for all traffic in the event that
UN troops are deployed along the Lebanon-Syria border," Finland's
foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja said after meeting his Syrian
counterpart, Walid Moallem, in Helsinki. Finland holds the rotating
presidency of the European Union.
Lebanon has land borders only with Syria and Israel.
Syria's threat to close its border and Israel's resolve to
continue the blockade were among the burgeoning hurdles facing
Lebanon as it struggled to meet key requirements of the UN
resolution: deployment of 15,000 Lebanese soldiers south for the
first time in four decades and stiffening control on all
borders.
Saniora said his government was making "every effort" to secure
the borders, but Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni questioned
the pace.
"Time is working against those who would like to see this
resolution applied," Livni told reporters after talks in Paris with
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy. "We are now in the
most sensitive and explosive position."
Several incidents erupted along the Israel-Lebanon border
Wednesday, with the killing of three Lebanese and one Israeli
soldier by exploding ordnance, the capture of two Lebanese men in
an army raid, and the resumption of sporadic shelling by Israeli
forces in the disputed Chebaa Farms.
Olmert told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by phone that
the international force must arrive as soon as possible, so the sea
and air blockade could be called off, his office said.
Syria, a Hezbollah benefactor largely left out of diplomacy
during the 34-day war appeared to insert itself Wednesday.
Syrian President Bashar Assad called any deployment of
multinational troops along his border a "hostile" affront to
Syria.
"First, this means creating hostile conditions between Syria and
Lebanon," Assad told Dubai Television in an interview aired
Wednesday. "Second, it is a hostile move toward Syria and naturally
it will create problems."
The Aug. 11 UN resolution that halted fighting three days later
called for the international reinforcements to arrive in Lebanon,
but some have complained the mandate was fuzzy.
The additional peacekeepers were to augment the 2,000-strong UN
Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, deploy south of the
Litani River, 18 miles from the Israeli border, and open fire only
in defense of themselves and civilians.
"The Israelis cannot ask UNIFIL to disarm Hezbollah. This is not
written in our mandate," French Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, the
UNIFIL commander, told reporters at force headquarters in Naqoura,
Lebanon.
Pellegrini said the cease-fire "is tense, very fragile, very
volatile... Any provocation or misunderstanding could escalate
very, very rapidly."
Many countries appeared wary of joining without safeguards to
ensure they don't get sucked into a new Mideast conflict.
France currently leads UNIFIL but disappointed the UN by
pledging only to double its 200-strong contingent. French Prime
Minister Dominique de Villepin said Wednesday his country wanted
"to go further once the conditions are right."
Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis visited Beirut on
Wednesday and pledged two teams of troops but did not mention
numbers.
Saniora accepted a US$230 million aid package from the United
States and asked Washington to use its influence with Israel.
"The United States can support us in putting real pressure on
Israel to lift the siege," Saniora said. Israel imposed a sea, land
and air blockade on Lebanon early in the war. Saniora has called
its continuation a violation of the cease-fire and reportedly asked
Rice and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to intervene.
Artillery soared Wednesday in the disputed Chebaa Farms area,
where Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet. Israel said it fired only
into its own territory as deterrence. But Lebanese security
officials said Israeli troops stationed in the area fired across
the border into Lebanon, hitting near Lebanese army positions.
Lebanese and Israeli officials agreed no artillery from Lebanon hit
Israel.
The Israeli army seized two Lebanese men in a village farther
along the border, Lebanese officials said, but Israel did not
comment on the claim.
Three Lebanese soldiers were killed as they dismantled an
unexploded missile near the southern village of Tibnine, and an
Israeli soldier died near Blida when his tank hit a land mine.
Another Israeli soldier was shot in the head the border village
of Taibeh, Arab media said, but Israel denied such an incident.
A Lebanese army communique said four Israeli jets flew over huge
swaths of Lebanon, including the capital. Such flyovers have been
frequent since the cease-fire.
Witnesses in south Lebanon said an Israeli bulldozer and two
tanks set up a roadblock and cut off traffic between two Lebanese
villages, isolating the town of Bint Jbail.
Hundreds of Israeli troops have remained in the positions they
occupied during the fighting, waiting for the UN peacekeepers to
establish a buffer zone between Israel and Hezbollah
guerrillas.
(Chinadaily.com via agencies August 24, 2006)
