Israel Ends Naval Blockade on Lebanon
    By Edward Cody
    The Washington Post

    Friday 08 September 2006

    Israel lifted its eight-week-old maritime blockade against Lebanon Friday, the United Nations announced, and within hours a gleaming white ship pulled into Beirut harbor carrying a load of appliances.

    The reopening of sea lanes to Lebanon, which the United Nations said took place in the early afternoon, came one day after Israel's blockade against air traffic was lifted, completing the end to suffocating restrictions imposed when war broke out between Israel and the Hezbollah militia on July 12.

    "The blockade has seriously undermined the Lebanese economy and it is high time for it to end so as to allow the people to get back to their businesses," said Gen. Alain Pellegrini, the commander of U.N. forces in Lebanon.

    The head of the Beirut International Shipping Chamber, Elie Zahour, told reporters six cargo ships were on the way carrying cars and containers of other imported goods. The lineup reflected Beirut's role as a hub for imports and exports in the region, a major component of the Lebanese economy that withered for two months while the battle raged.

    Israel said it imposed the blockade to prevent arms shipments to Hezbollah, the militant Shiite Muslim movement that battled Israeli forces for 33 days in the rugged hills along the Lebanon-Israel border in a war that ended Aug. 14. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert relaxed the restrictions only on assurances from the United Nations that European ships and soldiers would join Lebanese forces in making sure the Hezbollah militia cannot receive supplies from abroad.

    For now, Israeli patrol boats are turning over surveillance duties to Italian ships in the Mediterranean waters off Lebanon, Israeli and U.N. officials said. French and Greek navy ships also have promised to help patrol the area for an interim period. In the long term, the German navy has shouldered responsibility for working with the Lebanese military to guarantee no arms reach Hezbollah.

    Olmert announced Wednesday that he would lift the air and sea blockade Thursday evening. Unrestricted commercial airline flights to Beirut resumed Thursday evening, but the sea blockade was ordered to remain in place pending additional assurances from the United Nations. More coordination took place Friday morning, and the commander of an Italian task force took over responsibility for the patrols Friday afternoon, a U.N. spokesman said.

    "It is our understanding that the international force is operational and the Israelis turned it over to the Italians ...," said Alex Ivenko, a spokesman for Pellegrini.

    Israeli officials said the airline flights were allowed to resume because German officials were on duty at Beirut's airport monitoring air freight. But the Lebanese public works and transport minister, Mohammed Safadi, said the Germans were only providing technical assistance and customs was the responsibility of Lebanese authorities. Similarly, he said, the Italian ships would be assigned to help Lebanese authorities monitor sea shipments.

    A senior Lebanese official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Hezbollah insisted that any European sea patrols or customs help be under the aegis of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL. In any case, he said, Hezbollah officials are not worried about resupplying since their weapons come mainly from Iran via Syria and smuggling is an old tradition along the long, porous Lebanon-Syria border.

    With that in mind, Israel had demanded that German personnel join Lebanese army and Internal Security Forces along the border. But Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, reflecting Hezbollah's concerns, refused, saying the Germans would only provide equipment and training to the Lebanese deployment.

    Israeli officials were quoted in news reports, meanwhile, as saying remaining Israeli soldiers inside Lebanon would likely withdraw within about two weeks. The Italian foreign minister, Massimo D'Alema, said the number of foreign UNIFIL troops would reach 5,000 by next week, which has been a benchmark for completing the Israeli withdrawal.

    Spain's parliament approved the dispatch of 1,000 troops to further reinforce the peacekeeper contingent, according to news agency reports from Madrid. The force, which had stood at 2,000, has climbed above 3,000 with the arrival last week of about 900 Italian troops, out of a pledged 3,000, and several hundred French troops, out of a pledged 2,000. Under a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the fighting, the force is scheduled to reach 15,000, along with a deployment of 15,000 Lebanese army troops.