By Sue Plemming
Jerusalem - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday she believed a ceasefire to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon could be forged this week.
Washington has refused to call for an immediate truce to end the 20-day conflict, but an Israeli raid on Sunday that killed 54 civilians triggered worldwide demands for an end to the Jewish state's war against Hezbollah.
The attack on the southern village of Qana prompted Lebanon to call off scheduled talks with Rice on Sunday and tell her she was not welcome until an unconditional ceasefire was in place.
Continues Below ↓
Rice stayed on in Jerusalem and won a 48-hour suspension from Israel of its aerial bombardment of south Lebanon. Israel also agreed a 24-hour window for residents to leave the battered area and let aid workers reach the worst hit villages.
"This morning, as I head back to Washington, I take with me an emerging consensus on what is necessary for both an urgent ceasefire and lasting settlement. I am convinced we can achieve both this week," she told reporters in Jerusalem.
There was no immediate Israeli government reaction to her comments.
The United Nations Security Council deplored Sunday's bombing, the deadliest single attack in Israel's nearly three-week-old war, but did not demand an immediate ceasefire, despite UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's call for one.
US State Department spokesperson Adam Ereli said Israel's decision to suspend air strikes would allow a probe into the Qana attack, which occurred at a time of heightened global alarm at the hundreds of civilian casualties in the war.
He also said Israel had the right to "take action against targets preparing attacks against it", a restatement of US policy that Israel has the right to defend itself.
Israeli fighters launched air strikes in eastern Lebanon near Syria overnight on Sunday but Jerusalem said the attacks came before the start of the 48-hour suspension.
The Jewish state ordered its forces into combat on July 12 when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid and killed eight. It wants to stop the guerrilla group blasting rockets into the north of the Israel.
At least 545 people have been killed in Lebanon, although the health minister estimates the toll at 750 including bodies still stuck under the rubble with rescue workers unable to remove them under fire. Fifty-one Israelis have been killed.
Key diplomats in the Lebanese-Israeli conflict plan to meet at the United Nations this week on steps to end the violence, beginning with a meeting on Monday of potential contributors to an international force to go to southern Lebanon.
France has already seized the initiative and distributed its draft over the weekend on elements for a sustainable ceasefire and preparations for an international stabilisation force, which the council will discuss on Monday or Tuesday.
Washington's main ally in its refusal to call for an immediate truce, Prime Minister Tony Blair, also said on Monday he thought there was a "real chance" of getting a UN resolution to bring a complete halt to fighting.
The 15-nation Security Council unanimously adopted a statement expressing "extreme shock and distress" at the Qana killings but did not call for an immediate truce.
Annan said he was already "deeply dismayed" his previous calls for an immediate ceasefire had not been heeded.
Rescue workers called off the search in Qana for bodies or survivors after hours of digging through the rubble with their hands, lifting out the twisted, dust-caked corpses of children.
The attack flattened a three-storey building. Many of the people inside were killed as they slept. Israel said it was unaware civilians were in the building and accused Hezbollah fighters of firing rockets into northern Israel from Qana.
A Lebanese Foreign Ministry official told an emergency session of the UN Security Council that more than 60 people were killed though police in Lebanon put the death toll at 54.
US President George Bush, blaming Hezbollah and its main allies Syria and Iran for the war, says the root causes of the conflict must be tackled before there can be lasting peace.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert voiced "deep sorrow" over Qana but vowed the war against the guerrillas would go on.
Hezbollah fired more than 140 rockets at Israel on Sunday, wounding six people, Israeli police said.
There was no official comment from Hezbollah on Israel's decision but the group's al-Manar television said the suspension was an "American and Zionist attempt to absorb the world's fury" over Qana. Earlier, Hezbollah had vowed to retaliate.
Additional reporting by Jerusalem, U.N. bureaux
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
