WASHINGTON, 23 July 2006 — With Israel massing soldiers and tanks on its Lebanese border in the wake of an 11-day aerial bombardment, there are fears an Israeli invasion will move this war into an ever-bloodier phase.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced plans yesterday to embark today to the Middle East on an emergency diplomatic mission to open talks aimed at bringing a “sustainable end” to the violence.
This is the first US diplomatic effort on the ground since the Israeli onslaught against Lebanon began. In another sign that diplomatic efforts have shifted to a higher gear, the White House said Rice would join President George Bush today to discuss the crisis with Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, chief of the Saudi National Security Council, and Saudi Ambassador to Washington Prince Turki ibn Faisal.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the idea was “to provide the president and Rice a chance to continue to strategize with a key partner in the region on a diplomatic solution.” Immediately following meeting with the Saudis, Rice will travel to the region, stopping in Israel and the Palestinian territories to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Rice will then travel to Rome, where she will meet with members of “the Lebanon core group.” She will not, however, stopover in Egypt where she was scheduled to meet with her counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.
“Representatives of the core group, which includes Lebanon, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, the European Union, Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan the United Nations and the World Bank, will work to develop a plan for a sustainable resolution to the violence between Israel and Hezbollah,” said David Welch, the US State Department’s assistant secretary for Near East Affairs, who met with Arab and Israeli journalists Friday afternoon.
“Discussions will focus on political issues, security concerns, humanitarian needs, and support for the economic reconstruction of Lebanon, he said. “We’ve received a good number of acceptances already.”
The plans emerged following two days of talks in New York with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and envoys he sent to the region this week. Annan called Thursday for an immediate cease-fire. On Friday Rice rejected Annan’s and international calls for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah extremists, saying a quick end to the fighting would only give Lebanese and Israeli civilians the “false promise” of a lasting peace. Rice said the Bush administration is not interested in “quick fixes” and said the world is witnessing “the birth pangs of a new Middle East” in the current fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. “We do seek an end to the current violence, and we seek it urgently. More than that, we also seek to address the root causes of that violence so that a real and endurable peace can be established,” Rice said at a State Department briefing.
“We are not delaying here,” Welch told Mideast reporters. “If we can put in place conditions tomorrow for a cease-fire, obviously we would do so. But we believe that it’s going to take some time — it doesn’t necessarily have to take a lot of time, and the less time it takes the better — we can put together elements for a more stable situation than we see right now.” But the acrimonious briefing Welch had with Arab journalists Friday reflected the tensions many in the Mideast feel about America’s support for Israel’s bombings of Lebanon, and the resulting deaths of Lebanese civilians.
Welch said the US wanted to “encourage a solution...that will protect both Israel and Lebanon.”
An Arab then journalist asked: “The UN condemned Israel’s excessive use of force while the US remained tight-lipped...”
“The secretary of state just addressed the issues of humanitarian interest on both sides of the border. We are not ignoring it,” said Welch. “The words of the US carry great weight; we don’t want to declare something unless it will have an effect.”
“Even if the price is wiping out the whole country?” said the reporter. “That’s a dramatic statement; we don’t favor wiping out any country. We don’t believe there is any acceptable loss of civilian life,” said Welch.
The roundtable of reporters erupted in protest. Welch rejected charges that America supported Israel’s attack.
“We gave Israel no green light,” he said.
Asked if Israel will go to Rome, Welch said: “Israel will not attend core group meeting, we believe Israel is fully capable of making its views known to the core group; it has relationships with almost all of them.”
The US reluctance to seek a speedy cease-fire stems from Bush’s view that Israel’s fight against Hezbollah is part of the broader war on terror in the Middle East, and his belief in the need for a democratic transformation in the region.
The administration’s rejections for a cease-fire sparked fresh criticism from US liberals, who accuse the Bush White House of mishandling the crisis.
Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Ma., called the administration’s refusal to seek an immediate halt to the fighting “a disaster” that could lead to further escalation of the violence.
