I have no idea if Annan and Blair's proposal is going to get anywhere, but I sure do like the way it sounds:
| UN chief Kofi Annan and UK PM Tony Blair have called for an international force to be sent to Lebanon.
The force could "stop the bombardment coming over into Israel and therefore gives Israel a reason to stop its attacks on Hezbollah", Mr Blair said. The calls came as Israel struck targets across Lebanon for a sixth day, killing 15 people in air strikes in the north. Two people were hurt in a new Hezbollah attack on the Israeli city of Haifa, where eight people died on Sunday. Monday's rocket attack brought down a three-storey building in the city, Israel's third-largest, and rescuers were searching the rubble for more victims. Lebanese guerrillas have been firing hundreds of missiles into Israel. On Monday, Lebanese TV showed footage of what it said was an Israeli F-16 fighter aircraft falling from the sky over Beirut in flames. Israel said none of its aircraft had been shot down. Mr Annan's call for an international force suggested a "package of actions, not exhortations" that would require parties to release prisoners, stop both rocket attacks into Israel and retaliatory action and "pursue this idea of a stabilisation force". The call was made after talks between Mr Annan and Mr Blair on the sidelines of the G8 summit in the Russian city of St Petersburg. |
These are precisely the situations in which the international community needs to be involved. It has become painfully clear that both sides in this conflict are more interested in posturing than they are reaching a peaceful resolution, dramatically increasing the likelihood this conflict will spill over into other parts of the region. For a whole myriad of reasons, we simply cannot sit by and allow that to happen.
UPDATE: Ha'aretz is reporting that Israel has once again rejected calls for the deployment of an international peace keeping force. And their reasoning is priceless:
| Israel is concerned that an international force would make it more difficult for the IDF to respond to future attacks from Lebanese territory. |
Erm... That's kind of the point, isn't it?
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: "ACTIONS, NOT EXHORTATIONS".
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blog.alexwhalen.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/31
Subscribe to this blog's feed
Leave a comment