Israel rejects truce, Hezbollah defiant as Rice returns

[MsMagnificent]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060730/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflict_060730033609;_ylt=AjXSabZvU3tIc8fNBUKXYZYUewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTA2ZGZwam4yBHNlYwNmYw--

JERUSALEM (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is pursuing a new round of Middle East diplomacy as the Lebanon conflict moved into its 19th day, with Israel and Hezbollah exchanging firepower and threats in defiance of international moves toward a ceasefire.

Shortly after Rice touched down in Israel for the second time in a week, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed to strike cities "in the centre" of the country if the Jewish state continued to attack civilians in Lebanon.

Israel, backed by the United States, has refused to set a date for ending its war on the Shiite Muslim group that has killed more than 450 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and made hundreds of thousands homeless.

In a televised speech apparently timed to coincide with Rice's arrival, Nasrallah accused the top US diplomat of returning to the region just to impose "conditions" on Lebanon as part of plans to create a new Middle East order.

<snip>

But an Israeli foreign ministry official said Saturday that a ceasefire was unacceptable because Hezbollah "would exploit it to gather civilians to use them as a human shield in the combat zone

<snip>

US President George W. Bush stressed in his weekly radio address that "militias in Lebanon must be disarmed, the flow of illegal arms must be halted, and the Lebanese security services should deploy throughout the country".

He said that during his meetings with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Washington Friday they agreed that a "robust multinational force must be dispatched to Lebanon quickly".

Bush and Blair did not call for an immediate ceasefire, and warned Israel's archfoes Syria and Iran -- supporters of Hezbollah -- that they must become "proper and responsible members of the international community" or face "the risk of increasing confrontation".

Blair said world powers would meet at the UN Monday to discuss the possible deployment of a multinational force. But Syria said it would simply be an "occupation force" that served Israel's interests.


(see just posted article http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2422705 )

[mom cat]

1. How many more kids have to die?

[stray cat]

2. Hezbollah also rejects truce that callsfor it to abide by UN rulings

or release kidnapped soldiers. Neither side is ready for it to stop - only the Lebanese civilians want a cease fire.