The United Kingdom hopes a peace plan for Lebanon can emerge within days that could lead to a cessation of hostilities, Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday.
But he said details need to be worked out for an international force before a ceasefire could be declared that would hold on both sides.
Blair has been under political pressure at home for joining United States President George Bush as the only top Western leaders not to publicly call for an immediate ceasefire.
He said he did want a ceasefire, but said it would only work if conditions were first put in place to ensure it succeeded.
”I don’t want the killing to go on. I want the killing to stop. Now. It’s got to stop on both sides and it’s not going to stop on both sides without a plan to make it stop,” Blair said during a news conference with Iraq’s visiting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
”There have been, as you might expect over the past few days, enormous diplomatic efforts to get us to the point where I hope at some point within the next few days we can say very clearly what our plan is to bring about an immediate cessation of hostilities … ” Blair said.
He said the plan consisted of an end to shooting, the return of kidnapped Israeli soldiers and also an international force, a proposal he first made during a meeting of leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) group of industrial countries in Russia a week ago.
”That is the plan we’ve been working on, and we’ve been working on it since the G8. If someone’s got a better plan I’d like to hear it,” Blair said.
Rice visits Beirut
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Lebanon on Monday and a Lebanese source said she had insisted Hezbollah release 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 Beirut, 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.
But Rice later told Shi’ite Muslim Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is an ally of Hezbollah and is also close to Syria, that ”the situation on the border cannot return to what it was before July 12”, a Lebanese political source said.
Rice was referring to the day Hezbollah captured the two Israeli soldiers. The source quoted her as saying there would be no ceasefire before Hezbollah freed the pair unconditionally and pulled its forces back about 20km from the border.
A US 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 starting talks with Shi’ite Muslim Parliament speaker Nabih 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 Hezbollah leaders since the war erupted.
Hezbollah 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 towards Bint Jbeil, about 4km inside Lebanon, was one of several recent Israeli forays in search of Hezbollah fighters and rocket-launchers.
Israeli air raids killed at least three people and wounded 40 in south Lebanon. Bombs also hit a Shi’ite area of Beirut.
Hezbollah 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, launched after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a raid across the border on July 12. Twenty soldiers have also died.
Ceasefire deal
The US, which blames Hezbollah and its allies in Syria and Iran for the crisis, wants any ceasefire deal to remove the threat to Israel posed by the Shi’ite group.
Hezbollah 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 Hezbollah from south Lebanon and take control of Lebanon’s border with Syria to stop the guerrillas re-arming.
”It doesn’t matter who runs the mission, it’s just important that the mission is accomplished,” Israeli Vice-Premier Shimon Peres told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper.
But just as Hezbollah has fought Israeli attempts to drive it from the south, it will surely resist military coercion by any international force, assuming one could be assembled.
Several European Union countries are ready to contribute to a peace force for Lebanon, but problems remain in ensuring it can fulfil its mission, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
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 Hezbollah 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.
Germany said it was hopeful for progress on the release of the soldier after its Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, met regional leaders at the weekend.
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. — Reuters