Mideast Cease-Fire Fails Early Test
The uneasy truce between Lebanon and Israel faced further erosion Sunday as leaders from both countries leveled threats and accusations a day after Israeli commandos raided Lebanon despite agreeing to a cease-fire agreement last week.
Lebanon's defense minister said he was certain Hezbollah would not break the cease-fire but warned rogue Palestinian groups of harsh measures and a traitor's fate if they incited Israeli retaliation by launching rockets into the Jewish state.
Also, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, a Sunni Muslim, toured the devastated Hezbollah stronghold in Shiite south Beirut on Sunday and decried the destruction wrought by Israeli bombs as "crimes against humanity." Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shiite and Hezbollah backer, stood at the prime minister's side and said they spoke with one voice.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would name a panel to investigate government and military conduct of the conflict, in the face of criticism that authorities prosecuted a messy war with an unclear outcome and waffled over key decisions.
A day after Israel conducted a pre-dawn commando raid deep into the Bekaa Valley, prompting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to declare the Israelis in violation of the Security Council cease-fire resolution, there were no reports of fresh incidents and the truce held into a seventh day.
Residents in the mountains east of Beirut, however, reported continued Israeli overflights. And the Lebanese army issued a statement accusing Israel of not abiding by the cease-fire because of the airspace violations, which were a prelude the Bekaa Valley commando raid.
Defense Minister Elias Murr's strong warning to rogue rocket teams indicated concern that Syrian-backed Palestinian militants might try to restart the fighting by drawing retaliation from Israel. He insisted Hezbollah would hold its fire.
"We consider that when the resistance (Hezbollah) is committed not to fire rockets, then any rocket that is fired from the Lebanese territory would be considered collaboration with Israel to provide a pretext (for Israel) to strike," he said.
In other developments:
On Saturday, Murr had threatened to stop the deployment of the army in south Lebanon, a key demand of the U.N. cease-fire resolution, after the Israeli helicopter-borne commando raid near the town of Boudai in the foothills of the Mount Lebanon range on the west side of the Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold.
Israel said it launched the raid to interdict Iranian weapons shipments for Hezbollah as they crossed into the country from Syria. One Israeli officer was killed and two soldiers were wounded, one seriously.
Townspeople in Boudai said the Israel raid began at 3 a.m. and that 300 residents grabbed their guns and fought at the side of 15 Hezbollah guerrillas for 90 minutes before the commandos retreated and were flown back to Israel. Residents said there were no casualties on the Lebanese side.
Lebanon has started deploying 15,000 soldiers to the south, putting a government force in the region for the first time in four decades, as part of the cease-fire requirements. They are to be joined by an equal force of international peacekeepers, but wrangling among countries expected to send troops has so far delayed assembly of the force. The flare-up underlined concern about the fragility of the cease-fire and the U.N. pleaded for nations to send troops.
Further complicating efforts to form an international force, Olmert on Sunday said Israel would not accept the participation of peacekeepers from countries that don't have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh — Muslim countries that do not have diplomatic ties with Israel — are among the only countries to have offered front-line troops for the expanded force, which is to police the border.
Murr, meanwhile, did not return to his threat to halt the Lebanese deployment when he spoke on Sunday, apparently satisfied by Annan's declaration that Israel had violated the cease-fire and warned against future such actions.
A statement issued by Annan's spokesman late Saturday said that the U.N. chief spoke with both Saniora and Olmert about the fighting. "The secretary-general is deeply concerned about a violation by the Israeli side of the cessation of hostilities," it said. "All such violations of Security Council Resolution 1701 endanger the fragile calm that was reached after much negotiation."
Saniora, the prime minister, made his first and highly publicized visit to Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold Sunday, where the militant group's operatives were still handing out bundles of US$100 bills — $12,000 for each claimant who lost a home there. The stipend was to pay a year's rent and refurnish homes, which Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has promised to rebuild within a year.
"What we see today is an image of the crimes Israel has committed ... there is no other description other than a criminal act that shows Israel's hatred to destroy Lebanon and its unity," Saniora said to a big crowd of reporters and television crews invited on the tour of the region where Israeli airstrikes destroyed whole neighborhoods.
"I hope the international media transmits this picture to every person in the world so that it shows this criminal act, this crime against humanity," the Western-backed prime minister said.
Arab League foreign ministers convened for an emergency meeting in Cairo to discuss a plan to create a fund to rebuild Lebanon. The meeting ended with no plan, but foreign ministers said a social and economic council would convene to discuss how to fund the rebuilding.
Diplomats said Arabs want to counter the flood of money that is believed to be coming from Iran to Hezbollah to finance reconstruction projects. An estimated 15,000 apartments were destroyed and 140 bridges hit by Israeli bombardment in Lebanon, along with power and desalination plants and other key infrastructure.
"This is a war over the hearts and mind of the Lebanese, which Arabs should not lose to the Iranians this time," said a senior Arab League official, speaking on condition of because he is not authorized to talk to the media.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has not said where the money would come from, but Iran, which helped create Hezbollah and is its strongest supporter, is widely believed to have opened its treasury for the rebuilding program.
Iran — which is not an Arab nation and is not part of the league — denied that on Sunday. "Hezbollah is a legitimate body in Lebanon; they have their own economic resources and popular support there," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.
In Israel, Olmert announced the inquiry into the conduct of the war at his Cabinet's weekly meeting. He did not clarify what authorities the panel would have, officials said. He said he would coordinate his decision with the attorney general and ask the Cabinet to approve the panel's formation in the coming days.
Participants in the meeting said the panel apparently would not have the authority to make recommendations about those involved in the decision-making process. Some Cabinet ministers called for an official government inquiry. In 1982, an official inquiry with broad authority forced Ariel Sharon to resign his post as defense minister after a first Israeli war in Lebanon.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz had already appointed his own panel to look into the army's performance during the war that erupted July 12 after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. Three others died pursuing the guerrilla fighters into Lebanon.
On Sunday, Peretz told the Cabinet that Israel had to examine its failures in the operation "because we have to get ready for the next round."