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U.S. at Odds with Europe and UN on Lebanon Cease-Fire

[Washington Post] Robin Wright and Colum Lynch - The U.S. faces growing tensions with allies over its support of Israel's military campaign to cripple Hizballah, amid calls for a cease-fire. The UN has floated the idea of expanding a 2,000-strong UN force that has been in Lebanon since 1978, but Israel and the U.S. say that option is not viable. The U.S. remains content to allow Israel to pound Hizballah, both to remove it as a threat and to undermine the region's extremist movements and hard-line regimes. "I don't think anybody disagrees on the desire to end the violence in the region, but let's remember what the root causes of the violence are," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. A senior administration official said Wednesday, "The conditions that the G-8 talked about are not in place to get a real and permanent cease-fire that addresses the fundamental problems of the region." He said the Israelis "have a terrible problem" because Hizballah is placing a lot of equipment in civilian neighborhoods and "it is impossible for them to avoid all the collateral damage."
2006-07-20 01:00:00
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