The split within the international community over the Lebanon war was clearly exposed recently when the United States and Britain combined at a Rome summit to block a move by European and Arab countries to demand an immediate ceasefire.
In a frenetic last 90 minutes of the summit, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, had to fend off a chorus of calls from foreign ministers demanding that she support a call for Israel and the Lebanese-based militia, Hizbullah, to declare a temporary truce. Her only ally at the conference was Margaret Beckett, the British foreign secretary.
A US State Department official travelling with Rice denied the US had been isolated, a view disputed by other sources at the conference. The official said: ”Whether we call [the ceasefire] immediate or urgent is semantics. We walked out of that room with the same sense of urgency [as others].”
The conference ended with a statement fudging the ceasefire issue, with participants expressing ”their determination to work immediately to reach with the utmost urgency a ceasefire”, but going on to incorporate Washington’s insistence that any cessation of hostilities be ”lasting, permanent and durable”.
A conference source said the focus of diplomatic activity would now shift to the UN in New York, but that substantive discussions on a ceasefire appeal would only begin ”in the course of next week”. — Â