STOCKHOLM, 1 September 2006 — Donor countries meeting in Stockholm yesterday pledged $940 million in aid to help reconstruction efforts in Lebanon as UN chief Kofi Annan arrived in Syria to shore up the truce between Israel and Hezbollah.
“An amount exceeding $900 million was pledged at the Stockholm conference,” Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson told delegates, later updating the sum to $940 million (732 million euros).
“This conference has met its objectives by a wide margin,” he added.
The amount was nearly double the $500 million that had been expected from the more than 50 countries and organizations attending the emergency conference in Sweden.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora earlier made an impassioned plea for aid at the meeting, telling delegates that damage to his country from the 34-day war was in the billions of dollars.
“The direct damage from this last invasion to our infrastructure and to our public and private property is now running into the billions of dollars,” Siniora said. “Loss to GDP, job losses and the long-term direct and indirect costs to the economy, including lost revenues in tourism, agriculture and industry are expected to be billions more.”
Siniora strongly rejected suggestions that the aid money would trickle down to Hezbollah and strengthen the group’s position in southern Lebanon.
“This idea, that it will be siphoned in one way or another to Hezbollah is entirely, completely, a fallacy. It is not true,” Siniora said at a news conference.
Earlier, in his opening speech, Siniora told delegates that the direct damage of the conflict was in the “billions of dollars” while the indirect cost including lost tourism and industry revenue would cost billions more.
“Moreover, Lebanon’s well-known achievements in 15 years of postwar development have been wiped out in a matter of days by Israel’s deadly military machine,” Siniora said.
He said reconstruction efforts would be “severely undermined” if Israel doesn’t lift its sea, air and land blockade of Lebanon. UN Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown also urged Israel to immediately lift the blockade, saying it was hampering relief efforts in Lebanon. “Aid when there is a blockade is like putting someone on life support when there is a foot on their windpipe,” he said in a speech to delegates.
Israel has said it would not lift its blockade until UN peacekeepers take positions along the Syrian border to block arms shipments to Hezbollah from its two main supporters, Iran and Syria.
In a report to the conference, the Lebanese government projected that early recovery efforts would cost about $540 million.
Conference host Eliasson said aid would strengthen the Lebanese government’s control of its country. “This conference aims at strengthening the central government of Lebanon and in that government Hezbollah is only a minor part,” he said.
The fighting started July 12 when Hezbollah guerrillas crossed the Lebanon-Israel border at Aita Al-Shaab, killed three Israeli soldiers and seized two others.
The attack provoked a fierce onslaught from Israel, which pounded Hezbollah strongholds as well as Lebanon’s roads, bridges and other key infrastructure, including the international airport in Beirut. Large sections of southern Lebanon and whole neighborhoods south of Beirut were left in ruins. An estimated 1 million people fled their homes.
Siniora said a prisoner swap with Israel was being considered by his government but “nothing has materialized.” “I hope the Israeli government will respond to the call of reason so that we can finish with this and everybody will return to his home,” he said.
Both UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have demanded the soldiers’ unconditional release.
The Lebanese government, along with the United Nations Development Program, said early recovery efforts would focus on finding housing for displaced families, rebuilding infrastructure, improving social services, cleaning up an oil spill of Lebanon’s coast and clearing unexploded ordnance.
Some research has estimated that up to 70 percent of Israeli bombs failed to explode initially. The Lebanese report said more than 50 people have been killed by such munitions since the cease-fire took hold this month and more than 4,000 pieces of unexploded ordnance have been destroyed.
Lebanese Economy Minister Sami Haddad said the most urgent need was 10,000 prefabricated houses for families whose homes were destroyed by Israeli bombing.
Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson urged aid ministers to open their wallets for Lebanon and show their support to the Lebanese people. “Our message...should be clear and firm: You are not alone,” Persson said. “War may be the business of some, but peace will always be our common duty.”
He also said he supported Annan’s call for an end to the Israeli blockade of Lebanon.
