http://www.ft.com/cms/s/37784a6e-2266-11db...00779e2340.html
By Harvey Morris in Jerusalem, Roula Khalaf in London and William Wallis in Beirut
Published: August 2 2006 22:02 - Financial Times
QUOTE
Israel would require a 15,000-strong international fighting force deployed in south Lebanon before its troops would loosen their grip on border territory wrested from Hizbollah control, Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, said on Wednesday.
He also said Israel would reserve the right to respond to any aggression, even after the force had been deployed.
Mr Olmert, in an interview with the Financial Times, was dismissive of the record of Unifil, the United Nations force in Lebanon, in preventing Hizbollah attacks.
Of the proposed international force, which would be only 2,000 peacekeepers short of the force in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the biggest the UN has ever deployed, he said: “It has to be made up of armies not of retirees; of real soldiers and not pensioners who have come to spend some leisurely months in southern Lebanon, but rather an army with combat units.”
The prime minister’s first interview with the British press since the Lebanon crisis erupted three weeks ago came as Israeli ground forces battled on five fronts across southern Lebanon.
Hizbollah defied Israeli claims that its infrastructure had been severely damaged by firing more than 180 rockets – a record number – into Israel. One of the rockets landed inside the West Bank, the longest range in three weeks of conflict.
The barrage followed an Israeli raid on a hospital in Baalbek, in the eastern Beka’a valley, where the army said it had snatched five Hizbollah fighters but also left 19 people dead, according to the Lebanese authorities.
The fierce escalation underlined the challenge facing world powers seeking to impose a deal on Israel and Lebanon. France and the US were last night said to be moving towards agreement on a UN resolution.
A British official said differences between Paris and Washington, until now at odds on steps needed to resolve the conflict, were narrowing, and an agreement on a two-stage process could allow a first UN resolution to be voted on early next week.
The diplomacy would start with a call for an end to hostilities, followed by efforts to form an international force in parallel with a political agreement.
But Mr Olmert insisted there should be no time lag between an Israeli withdrawal and the deployment of the international force. On his demand for a right of response he added: “If there is one lesson that comes from this war it is that, if anyone anticipated that Israel would tolerate these deaths without an appropriate response, this is wrong.”
Mr Olmert also dismissed suggestions that Israel might be ready to relinquish its control over Shebaa Farms – a border area regarded as occupied Syrian territory but which the Beirut government claims is Lebanese.
He also said Israel would reserve the right to respond to any aggression, even after the force had been deployed.
Mr Olmert, in an interview with the Financial Times, was dismissive of the record of Unifil, the United Nations force in Lebanon, in preventing Hizbollah attacks.
Of the proposed international force, which would be only 2,000 peacekeepers short of the force in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the biggest the UN has ever deployed, he said: “It has to be made up of armies not of retirees; of real soldiers and not pensioners who have come to spend some leisurely months in southern Lebanon, but rather an army with combat units.”
The prime minister’s first interview with the British press since the Lebanon crisis erupted three weeks ago came as Israeli ground forces battled on five fronts across southern Lebanon.
Hizbollah defied Israeli claims that its infrastructure had been severely damaged by firing more than 180 rockets – a record number – into Israel. One of the rockets landed inside the West Bank, the longest range in three weeks of conflict.
The barrage followed an Israeli raid on a hospital in Baalbek, in the eastern Beka’a valley, where the army said it had snatched five Hizbollah fighters but also left 19 people dead, according to the Lebanese authorities.
The fierce escalation underlined the challenge facing world powers seeking to impose a deal on Israel and Lebanon. France and the US were last night said to be moving towards agreement on a UN resolution.
A British official said differences between Paris and Washington, until now at odds on steps needed to resolve the conflict, were narrowing, and an agreement on a two-stage process could allow a first UN resolution to be voted on early next week.
The diplomacy would start with a call for an end to hostilities, followed by efforts to form an international force in parallel with a political agreement.
But Mr Olmert insisted there should be no time lag between an Israeli withdrawal and the deployment of the international force. On his demand for a right of response he added: “If there is one lesson that comes from this war it is that, if anyone anticipated that Israel would tolerate these deaths without an appropriate response, this is wrong.”
Mr Olmert also dismissed suggestions that Israel might be ready to relinquish its control over Shebaa Farms – a border area regarded as occupied Syrian territory but which the Beirut government claims is Lebanese.