Israel: Lebanon's Offer 'Interesting'
PM Says Deploying 15,000 Troops Along Border Merits Consideration, If Backed Up
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Play CBS Video Video Concerns About Peace Plan A group of Arab foreign ministers is headed to the United Nations today to push for changes in the draft of the Israel-Hezbollah cease-fire proposal. Lee Cowan reports.
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Video U.N. Cease-Fire Proposed The Bush administration is calling for an end to the violence in Lebanon and Israel, while the president is on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Aug. 8, 2006. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)
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Lebanese families cross into Syria through a 16-foot crater caused by Israeli bombardment of the Masnaa crossing, Aug. 8, 2006. (AP Photo/Bassem Tellawi)
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An Israeli army armored vehicle advances along the Lebanese border, Aug. 8, 2006. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
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Rescuers look for survivors at a building which was toppled by an Israeli air strike in the Chiah suburb of Beirut, Aug. 7, 2006. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
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Interactive Mideast Conflict Events, key players and a history of the world's most unstable region.
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Photo Essay Assault On Lebanon Israeli troops push further into southern Lebanon as bombardment of Beirut continues.
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Photo Essay Rockets Target Israel Hezbollah missiles rain down on cities and towns in northern Israel.
Fierce skirmishes broke out around the village of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold that Israel has tried to control for weeks. Hezbollah TV also reported pre-dawn attacks on Israeli forces near the Mediterranean city of Naqoura, about 2½ miles north of the border.
Israeli air strikes backed up the fighting on the ground.
The Arab League set a baseline demand for the Security Council: a full Israeli withdrawal or no peace deal is possible. The message was given in a tearful address by Saniora, and carried to the United Nations by Arab League envoys.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, in a speech to the Knesset, the parliament, said that it was time for Saniora "to wipe away his tears and to start acting in order to create a better future for the citizens for whom he is crying." She added that Israel is paying the price for Saniora's weakness.
Saniora's government voted unanimously to send 15,000 troops to stand between Israel and Hezbollah should a cease-fire take hold and Israeli forces withdraw.
The move was an attempt to show that Lebanon has the will and ability to assert control over its south, where Hezbollah rules with near autonomy bolstered by channels of aid and weapons from Iran and Syria. Lebanon has avoided any attempt to implement a 2-year-old U.N. resolution calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah, fearing it could touch off widespread unrest.
Saniora, speaking to Al-Arabiya television, praised Hezbollah's resistance, but said it was time for Lebanon to "impose its full control, authority and presence" over the war-weary country.
"There will be no authority, no one in command, no weapons other than those of the Lebanese state," he said.
Saniora also took a jab at Hezbollah's sponsor Syria, which ended a nearly three-decade military presence in Lebanon last year. "Syria should get used to the fact that Lebanon is an independent state," he said, without mentioning Hezbollah's other patron, Iran.
©MMVI CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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