Also see below:     
Annan Calls for Israel to End Blockade    [

    Annan: Israel Responsible for Most Truce Violations
    Haaretz

    Wednesday 30 August 2006

    United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday that Israel was responsible for most of the violations of the UN-brokered cease-fire that ended the 34-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah two weeks ago.

    Annan said he would ask Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in talks on Wednesday to lift Israel's air and sea blockade of Lebanon, imposed at the start of the war nearly seven weeks ago.

    Speaking after a meeting with Defense Minister Amir Peretz in Jerusalem, Annan appealed for all sides to work together to ensure the peace holds and "not risk another explosion in six years or 20 years."

    Peretz said Tuesday following talks with Annan that he hopes Israel will soon be able to lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon, imposed at the start of its 34-day conflict with Hezbollah that ended with a United Nations-brokered truce on August 14.

    "Israel will pull out once there is a reasonable level of forces there," he said.

    The defense minister did not clarify what it would take for Israel to lift the embargo, but Israel has demanded that Lebanese and international forces take control of the Lebanon-Syrian border to prevent Hezbollah guerrillas from smuggling in arms.

    The UN chief said he spoke with Peretz about lifting the blockade "as soon as possible in order to allow Lebanon to go on with normal commercial activities and also rebuild its economy."

    Annan also met with the families of three kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldiers Tuesday night, hours after calling for their release and for the lfiting of the blockade on Lebanon.

    Reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were snatched by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid on July 12, which sparked the 34-day conflict ended on August 14 by a UN brokered cease-fire. Corporal Gilad Shalit was abducted by Palestinian militants in late June, after they tunneled under the Gaza-Israel border and raided his IDF base.

    Goldwasser's wife, Karnit, told Israel TV after the meeting with Annan that he gave them no new information about the fate of their loved ones.

    "But the good news was that we got a personal pledge from the secretary-general of the UN that he accepts the mission to get the three kidnapped soldiers home and that's a really big thing," she said.

    The relatives said they had heard lip service from many international officials about efforts to get their relatives freed.

    "We asked him to be the one to start turning words into deeds and bring about their return home, all three," Karnit Goldwasser said. "He spoke to Lebanese cabinet ministers from Hezbollah and asked them to help him."

    The families of the three men also appealed for word on the soldier's conditions.

    "They must first of all give us a sign of life. [Annan] must act toward that. It's a moral demand that's basic in any negotiations," Regev's brother Benny said before the meeting.

    They also wanted Annan to back down from his demands that Israel lift its blockade of Lebanon, for fear that an end to the siege would allow Hezbollah to move its captives out of Lebanon.

    Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, said Tuesday the meeting between Annan and the families carried important symbolism.

    "I hope that he will leave here with a real feeling of obligation, of a moral mission to do everything he can - and he is going to several capitals in which there is influence on this matter - to bring about Udi [Ehud], Eldad and Gilad's speedy return home," Gillerman told Israel TV.

    Meanwhile, veteran civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking in Beirut, said he was told that the three soldiers were alive during his meetings with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Khaled Mashaal, political leader of Hamas, in Damascus.

    "The Hamas leadership says that the soldier they are holding is alive and well," Jackson told reporters in Beirut, where he was meeting political and religious leaders.

    "The president [Assad] believes that the two held somewhere by Hezbollah are alive," he added.

    Syria and Iran are the main backers of Hezbollah. "Obviously under any kind of international law, we should have been given a sign of life immediately. But these are terrorists," government spokeswoman Miri Eisen said. "Though we'd like to believe them, we continue to demand the unconditional release of all three."

    Annan arrived in Israel on Tuesday afternoon, after a visit to Lebanon during which he called on Hezbollah to free the two IDF soldiers it is holding and for Israel to end the sea and air blockade imposed on Lebanon at the start of the conflict.

    "We need to resolve the issue of the abducted soldiers very quickly," Annan said. "We need to deal with the lifting of the embargo - sea, land and air - which for the Lebanese is a humiliation and an infringement on their sovereignty."

    "I think the time has come for the siege to be lifted. The Lebanese have shown they're serious about the implementation of [UN resolution] 1701 in all the deployments and efforts they have made," he added.

    Israel has insisted it will maintain the restrictions until an arms embargo against Hezbollah is enforced.

    The UN chief has said there is a high risk of renewed hostilities unless the resolution is fully implemented.

    Families Pin Hopes on Annan

    Ahead of their meeting with Annan, the families of Regev and Goldwasser said Tuesday they hoped the UN chief would help secure their safe and quick release.

    "We ask [Annan] to act toward releasing our soldiers," Regev's brother, Benny, said before the meeting with Annan.

    "The UN decided that Lebanon and the Lebanese government and Hezbollah must release the soldiers without any conditions. This was the resolution. We expect him to act toward achieving it."

    The family members also appealed for word on the soldiers' conditions.

    "They must first of all give us a sign of life. [Annan] must act toward that. It's a moral demand that's basic in any negotiations," Benny Regev said.

    "I know that Kofi Annan is an important man... he has a lot of power and influence and he can speak to the government in Lebanon," said Karnit Goldwasser.

    Goldwasser's mother, Miki, said she would be open to talks and a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah.

    South Lebanon Visit

    Earlier Tuesday, Annan flew to south Lebanon where up to 15,000 UN peacekeepers are expected to be sent to bolster the 16-day-old truce between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

    Italy's first contingent of 800-1,000 troops set sail on what Rome said would be a "long and risky" mission. The aircraft carrier Garibaldi met four other Navy ships off the Mediterranean port of Brindisi for an official send-off for the force.

    France promised to send a 900-strong battalion before the middle of September, with a second battalion to follow.

    Annan also visited the base of the currently 2,000-strong UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Naqoura.

    The UN chief was briefed Tuesday by French Major General Alain Pellegrini, the UNIFIL commander, and other top officials, then reviewed an honor guard of UN troops in blue berets standing at attention on the green lawn inside the UN's white-walled compound.

    He laid a wreath at a monument for nearly 300 peacekeepers killed in Lebanon since UNIFIL deployed here in 1978. Muslim and Christian clergymen said prayers, and Annan stood in silence in front of a display of portraits of those killed, including four UNIFIL members killed in an Israel Air Force strike on their base in Khiam on July 25.

    Annan is expected to travel to Syria and Iran, Hezbollah's chief allies, later in the week.

    The United Nations hopes to create a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Israeli or Hizbollah forces and policed by up to 15,000 UN troops and a similar number of Lebanese soldiers.

    It is hoping that Muslim nations will contribute troops to balance the 7,000 or so pledged by European countries.

    Potential Muslim contributors include Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, although Israel has objected to their taking part because they have no diplomatic ties with Israel.

    "The UN should take steps to convince Israel to be rational in seeing the contribution of Indonesian peacekeeping troops," said Indonesia's chief security minister Widodo Adi Sutjipto, whose country has offered 1,000 troops.

    Go to Original

    Annan Calls for Israel to End Blockade
    By Amy Teibel
    The Associated Press

    Wednesday 30 August 2006

    Israel sidestepped demands Wednesday from visiting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan that it immediately lift its sea and air blockade of Lebanon and withdraw its forces once 5,000 international troops are deployed.

    Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated Israel would only lift the blockade and withdraw its soldiers from Lebanon after the full implementation of a U.N.-brokered cease-fire.

    Annan and Israeli officials said they hoped that truce would lead to a full peace accord between Israel and Lebanon.

    However, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said in Beirut that Lebanon "will be the last Arab country that could sign a peace agreement with Israel."

    And a Hezbollah minister in the Lebanese Cabinet said that the guerrilla group will not unconditionally release two Israeli soldiers whose capture set off the conflict, saying they would only be freed in a prisoner exchange.

    "There will be no unconditional release. This is not possible," Minister of Energy and Hydraulic Resources Mohammed Fneish said in Beirut. "There should be an exchange through indirect negotiations. This is the principle to which Hezbollah and the resistance are adhering."

    Under the U.N.-brokered truce that ended 34 days of fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, 15,000 Lebanese soldiers and up to 15,000 international troops are to be deployed and enforce an arms embargo on Hezbollah. The 2,500 U.N. observers currently monitoring the Israel-Lebanon border have a very limited mandate.

    Israel has said it would not lift its blockade unless international forces, along with Lebanese troops, are deployed on the Israel-Lebanon border and Lebanon's frontier with Syria to prevent the flow of weapons to Hezbollah.

    Syria has said it would consider the presence of international troops on its border a hostile act and Lebanon has said it would deploy its own forces there, but bar international troops. Annan has backed Lebanon in the dispute.

    The U.N. chief said that Lebanese authorities assured him they were serious about enforcing the arms embargo on Hezbollah, and that Israel's security concerns could be addressed in this way.

    "We need to be flexible, because I don't think there's ever only one way of solving a problem. We shouldn't insist that the only way to do it is by deploying international forces," he said.

    The lifting of the blockade is necessary for Lebanon's economy to recover from the war and for Lebanon's government to strengthen.

    "I do believe the blockade should be lifted," Annan said at a news conference with Olmert.

    Asked whether Israel would lift the blockade, Olmert was evasive, saying only that Israel wanted a full implementation of the cease-fire.

    Annan said he was working to increase the size of the international force in Lebanon "as rapidly as possible" and to double the current number to 5,000 quickly.

    "We hope that as we do that, the Israeli withdrawal (from Lebanon) will continue and by the time we are at that level, Israel will have fully withdrawn," Annan said.

    Olmert said Israel hoped to pull out from Lebanon "as soon as possible," but he also did not to embrace Annan's proposal to pull out all Israeli troops once 5,000 international peacekeepers were in place.

    "It isn't on one day the 5,000 come in and on one day all the Israelis depart," Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin explained later. "It's something in between, and it's something that has to be ironed out, and it is being ironed out."

    Olmert, Annan and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni nonetheless all expressed hope the cease-fire deal would evolve into a full-fledged peace accord.

    The deal could be "a cornerstone to build a new reality between Israel and Lebanon," Olmert said in his news conference with Annan.

    Israel has long sought a peace deal with Lebanon, but Lebanon has hesitated reaching a separate agreement with Israel as long as Israel's conflicts with the Palestinians and Syria are not resolved.

    Olmert said that the cease-fire could be "a cornerstone to build a new reality between Israel and Lebanon," he said.

    "I would like to emphasize that Israel has no conflict with the people or government of Lebanon," he said. "I would certainly hope that conditions would change rapidly in order to allow direct contact between the government of Israel and the government of Lebanon in order to hopefully soon reach an agreement between the two countries."

    But Saniora reiterated his country's position.

    "Let it be clear, we are not seeking any agreement until there is just and comprehensive peace based on the Arab initiative," the Lebanese prime minister said.

    The Arab initiative calls for an Israeli withdrawal from all territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war and the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital - demands Israel rejects.

    Both Annan and Olmert demanded the unconditional release of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah on July 12, the incident that triggered the war. A third Israeli soldier was seized by Palestinian Hamas militants in late June and is being held in the Gaza Strip. His capture touched off a two-month-old Israeli military incursion into Gaza.

    Annan said he would do all he could to win the release of the three soldiers. He said that during his visit to Lebanon, before coming to Israel, he discussed the soldiers' fate. "I did not get the impression that they are not alive. I believe they are alive," he said.

    In a meeting later with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Annan said Israel also must lift its closure of the Gaza Strip and open crossing points there. He called for an end to the bloodshed that has led to the deaths of more than 200 Palestinians since the end of June.

    Israel is the second stop on Annan's 11-day Mideast tour intended to shore up the truce.

    An international donors conference begins Thursday in Sweden, with organizers aiming to raise $500 million to help Lebanon. The European Union said it would pledge $54 million for early reconstruction projects.