US claims world backs Israel, others urge ceasefire

Yahoo! News
US claims world backs Israel, others urge ceasefire

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The United States said that Israel continued to have broad international support for military operations against Hezbollah, as violence along its border with Lebanon entered a second week.

**a "coalition of the unwitting"? These guys don't even know they're supporting, but that's okay, the US will gladly say they are anyway**

"The international community is speaking with one voice on this, except for Iran and Syria and Hezbollah. Hezbollah is what started this crisis," deputy White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.

"What the United States wants is what many other countries of the region want, which is an end to violence that is sustainable, durable -- one that will not put us back to the same status quo in a few months from now, when Hezbollah attacks innocent civilians again," she said.

A UN envoy on Wednesday urged a rapid decision on whether to deploy a new international force in an attempt to halt the fighting in the Middle East.

"We are in a hurry. It has to happen fast," Terje Roed-Larsen, adviser on Lebanese-Syrian issues to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, told a news conference in Madrid after meeting Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.

A five-strong UN mediation team, including Roed-Larsen and special political advisor to Annan Vijay Nambiar, which visited Israel and Lebanon this week, was due to return to New York later Wednesday to pass on its findings as the conflict escalated and foreigners fled the region.

Syria, blamed with Iran for encouraging Hezbollah, and Turkey on Wednesday deplored the "slow" international response to Israel's military offensive, Syrian media said.

President Bashar al-Assad and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked by telephone about the "Israeli aggression in Lebanon and Palestine which is targeting civilians, innocent people and infrastructure," the official SANA news agency said.

They discussed "international stances and the fact that the international community is slow to impose a ceasefire and put an end to the crisis," SANA said.

Divisions emerged in Europe where British Prime Minister Tony Blair refused Wednesday to call on Israel to halt its onslaught on Lebanon, revealing a split with other European Union leaders.

Quizzed in parliament, Blair said he would not demand that Israel stop the bombardment of Lebanon before Hezbollah released two kidnapped Israeli soldiers and halted its rocket attacks.

"This would stop now if the soldiers that were kidnapped wrongly when Hezbollah crossed the UN blue line were released," Blair told MPs.

"It would stop if the rockets stopped coming into Haifa deliberately to kill innocent civilians. If those two things happen ... I will be the first out there saying Israel should halt its operations."

Blair's position was in contrast to those of German President Horst Koehler and his Italian counterpart Giorgio Napolitano, who called Wednesday for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East.

Koehler said Israel had a right to self-defence, but added: "We are very concerned about the high number of civilian victims and the destruction of infrastructure."

Napolitano, in Berlin for his first official foreign visit since taking office in May, welcomed the proposal for a stronger UN force to be deployed in Lebanon and said it should include European soldiers.

"The UN should be able to rely on the European Union," he told reporters after meeting Koehler.

Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis echoed their sentiments, calling Wednesday for an "immediate ceasefire" in Lebanon with a view to a "rapid de-escalation of the crisis."

A total of 310 people have been killed since Israel launched a lethal offensive across Lebanon last Wednesday in a bid to cripple Hezbollah after it captured two Israeli soldiers.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana called Wednesday for an immediate end to the escalating violence.

In his second visit to the region in days, Solana called on "those who insist they may have influence to help to solve this problem," a possible allusion to Iran and Syria, urging them to act "immediately".

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was a mistake to "accuse particular countries and leaders" outside Israel and Lebanon over the crisis.

"If we start to think in terms of who is guilty as some other states do, directly accusing particular countries and leaders, this will only inflame passions still further," Lavrov told the Echo Moscow radio station in an apparent reference to US accusations of Syrian and Iranian involvement.

French President Jacques Chirac called for "humanitarian corridors" in Lebanon and from Lebanon to Cyprus to protect civilians from Israeli bombardment.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had "serious questions" over Israel's conduct as civilians bore the brunt of the strikes on Lebanon.

"The high number of civilian casualties and the extent of damage to essential public infrastructure raise serious questions regarding respect for the principle of proportionality in the conduct of hostilities," ICRC director of operations Pierre Kraehenbuehl told reporters at the organisation's Geneva base.