United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will press Israel and Lebanon on Sunday to strike a deal on an international force to end a 19-day-old war, after Hezbollah threatened to strike deeper into Israel.
Rice, in the region for a second time in a week as global concern mounts over the war’s hundreds of civilian deaths, said she hoped for agreement on terms for a ceasefire to be outlined in a United Nations resolution that could be tabled as early as Tuesday.
”I expect the discussions to be difficult, but there will have to be give and take,” Rice told reporters. She will have a second day of talks with Israeli leaders on Sunday.
In a further sign of intensifying diplomacy to end the war, France — emerging as the international force’s potential leader — drew up a draft UN Security Council resolution that will call for an immediate truce and prepare for the peace mission.
The document, distributed to the 15 Security Council members and obtained by Reuters, anticipated a draft resolution the US was planning that would place up to 20 000 peacekeepers along Lebanon’s borders with Israel and with Syria.
Meanwhile, it was reported on Sunday that an Israeli air strike on a building in the village of Qana in southern Lebanon caused at least 40 civilian casualties, security sources said.
They said the three-storey building, where about 100 civilians were sheltering, was partially destroyed.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will preside over a meeting on Monday of possible troop contributors, including the 25-member European Union, Turkey and nations now contributing to a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who says he believes it is possible to reach agreement on the international force within days, spoke by telephone to US President George Bush and French President Jacques Chirac, his spokesperson said.
Fighting raged on despite the diplomacy. Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded the Shi’ite Muslim town of Khaim in southern Lebanon on Sunday and Israeli tanks were massing near Israel’s border village of Metula, security sources said.
The internet site of Israel’s Haaretz daily newspaper quoted defence sources as saying the army had received orders to accelerate its offensive against Hezbollah assuming it had just another seven to 10 days before it had to stop fighting.
At least 483 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 51 Israelis have been killed in the conflict that erupted after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a raid on July 12. An estimated 750 000 people in Lebanon have fled their homes.
US stance
The US has faced mounting criticism across the world for not calling for an immediate ceasefire and for giving Israel an apparent green light to press on with its offensive.
Bush blames the conflict on Hezbollah and its main allies, Syria and Iran. ”We must recognise that Lebanon is the latest flashpoint in a broader struggle between freedom and terror that is unfolding across the region,” he said in a radio address.
Hezbollah fired more than 90 rockets into northern Israel on Saturday, and the guerrilla group’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah accused Rice of serving only Israel’s interests and threatened to strike further into Israel.
”There are many cities in central Israel which will come into target range … if the barbaric aggression on our country and people continues,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
Rice, who dined with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Saturday evening, will meet Israel’s foreign and defence ministers on Sunday morning and is expected to hold talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora later in her trip.
An Israeli political source said Rice did not pressure Olmert for an immediate ceasefire but did urge Israel not to attack Lebanon’s infrastructure. They agreed Hezbollah must release the two Israeli soldiers as part of any deal.
Rice praised Siniora for securing an agreement with Hezbollah Cabinet members in Lebanon to seek an immediate ceasefire that would include the disarming of militias.
Siniora says the main issues to be resolved include Israel’s detention of Lebanese prisoners and its occupation of the disputed Shebaa Farms area, claimed by Lebanon and used by Hezbollah to justify armed resistance against Israel.
The Israeli political source said Rice and Olmert had not discussed Siniora’s demands and that the size and composition of the international force to patrol southern Lebanon still had to be decided on, although France’s participation looked certain.
In a softening of Israel’s position that could help Rice get a deal, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Israel would not demand the peacekeepers immediately disarm Hezbollah. The Shi’ite guerrilla group would almost certainly reject this.
The official said Israel would demand peacekeepers keep Hezbollah away from the Israeli border and prevent the group from replenishing its stockpile of rockets from Syria and Iran.
An Israeli air strike cut Lebanon’s main crossing point to Syria on Saturday. — Reuters