By Sue Pleming
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Lebanon
on Monday and a Lebanese source said she had insisted Hizbollah
free two Israeli soldiers and pull back from the border before any ceasefire.
Rice met Prime Minister Fouad Siniora after arriving by helicopter from Cyprus
in a city pounded by Israeli air strikes almost every day since the 13-day-old
war began.
"Thank you for your courage and steadfastness,"
she told Siniora, who has repeatedly pleaded for an
immediate ceasefire.
There was no immediate word on the outcome of her meeting
with Siniora, which lasted more than two hours.
But Rice later told Shi'ite Muslim
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri
that "the situation on the border cannot return to what it was before July
12," a Lebanese political source said, referring to the day Hizbollah captured the two Israeli soldiers.
The source quoted Rice as saying there would be no ceasefire
before Hizbollah released the pair unconditionally
and withdrew its forces back about 20 km (13 miles) from the border. "The
tone of the meeting was very negative," the source said.
On her way to the region, Rice said she wanted to create
conditions for a sustainable ceasefire in a war that has cost 377 dead in Lebanon
and at least 37 Israeli lives in 13 days.
A U.S.
official in Rice's party said she would announce aid for Lebanon,
where Israeli bombing has displaced half a million people and wrecked
installations worth an estimated $1 billion.
The government said 110,000 refugees were being housed in
642 schools and other temporary shelters across Lebanon.
"I am deeply concerned about the Lebanese people and
what they are enduring," Rice told reporters before meeting Berri.
"I am concerned about the humanitarian situation,"
she said, without giving details of any American assistance.
Berri is a pro-Syrian politician
who has liaised between Siniora and Hizbollah leaders since the war erupted.
HELICOPTER DOWN
Hizbollah said it had shot down an
Israeli helicopter and hit five tanks, inflicting casualties in fierce battles
that erupted after Israeli forces pushed north from a border village.
Arab television channels said two Israeli soldiers had been
killed. Israel's
army reported nine wounded. An Israeli military source said a helicopter had
crashed, but was not shot down.
The tank thrust toward Bint Jbeil, about 4 km (2.5 miles) inside Lebanon,
was one of several recent Israeli forays in search of Hizbollah
fighters and rocket-launchers.
Israel plans a sweep of Bint Jbeil, which army spokeswoman Brigadier-General Miri Regev said had become a
"center for Hizbollah terrorists," adding:
"We intend to clear out this place to prevent the firing of Katyusha rockets at Israel."
The army plans to enter several other southern towns.
"We intend to go there to dismantle the terror infrastructure, kill the
terrorists and then of course leave," Regev
said.
Israeli air raids killed at least seven people and wounded
50 in south Lebanon.
Bombs also hit a Shi'ite area of Beirut.
Hizbollah rockets struck Haifa,
Nahariya and the border town of Shlomi, wounding at least four
people.
Rockets have killed 17 Israelis since the start of the war.
Twenty soldiers have also died.
The United States,
which blames Hizbollah and its allies in Syria
and Iran for
the crisis, insists any ceasefire deal must remove the threat to Israel
posed by the Shi'ite group.
INTERNATIONAL FORCE
Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,
who wants to swap the two soldiers for Lebanese and Palestinians in Israeli
jails, said Israel's
assaults would not stop cross-border rocket fire.
Israel,
after initially dismissing the idea, now says it would be willing for an
international force to dislodge Hizbollah from south Lebanon.
But just as Hizbollah has fought
Israeli attempts to drive it from the south, it would surely resist military
coercion by any international force, assuming one could be assembled.
Several European Union nations said they were ready to
contribute to a U.N. peace force for Lebanon,
but EU officials said questions remained over how it could fulfil
its mission.
Siniora has said only a broad
political deal will work.
This should include a prisoner swap and an Israeli pullout
from the disputed Shebaa Farms area to create
conditions in which Hizbollah could disarm and the
Lebanese army take over.
Rice is also set to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas
before discussing the crisis with European and Arab officials in Rome
on Wednesday.
Israel's
Lebanon
offensive coincided with an Israeli military push into the Gaza Strip to try to
recover a soldier captured by Palestinian militants on June 25.
Israeli shelling killed five people and wounded several
others in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses said.
Israel
has killed 118 Palestinians in a nearly month-long offensive in Gaza
to free the soldier and halt rocket fire.
Posted: 7/24/06
Source: Reuters
Return to: Condoleezza Rice
Please click on the Web Sites below for more information.