http://www.timesofoman.com/newsdetails.asp?newsid=33894
Tuesday, August 08, 2006 'Do not make Lebanon a punch bag for Israel' BEIRUT - Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora broke down in tears yesterday as he appealed to Arab foreign ministers not to allow his war-torn country to remain a conflict zone and a "punch bag" for Israel. Siniora's voice choked and his hands shook as he held a copy of his speech in which he said "we do not want the Lebanese state and the Lebanese people to remain the punch bag of Israel or anyone else". Siniora won the backing of the Arab foreign ministers for his plan to end the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, amid strong opposition from the Lebanese government to a UN draft resolution seeking to halt the violence. Meanwhile, Israeli air raids on Day 27 of the offensive killed at least 57 people in southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley. Warplanes bombed houses, bridges and roads in southern and eastern Lebanon as Israeli military commanders vowed to expand their massive offensive, with little sign of international agreement at the United Nations on a peace plan. The deadly raids came as Washington urged the quick passage of a UN resolution calling for a full halt to fighting that has left more than 1,000 people dead in 27 days. Top Israeli officials warned they would continue the offensive to cripple the Hezbollah movement regardless of any ceasefire negotiated at the United Nations. The foreign ministers of the 22-member Arab League gave their "complete, complete, complete backing to the seven points that the (Lebanese) government has adopted," Siniora said at the meeting. "We are determined not to be the arena for conflicts and confrontations from now on, whatever the justification," he said at an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the 22-member Arab League. After stopping for moments of tearful silence, Siniora said: "We are basing our arguments on the sorrows of the widowed women, the dead children, the wounded and the homeless people." "This setback threw our country decades back," said Siniora, who took office barely a year ago after the first elections in Lebanon since former powerbroker Syria pulled its troops out in April 2005. He said he condemned "the destruction of the country's infrastructure, the killing of about 1,000 citizens, a third of whom are children under 12 years old, while the refugees and the displaced people is nearly one million people." "One hour ago there was a horrible massacre in the village of Hula, a deliberate massacre, in which there were more than 40 martyrs," he said. "Massacres did not spare anyone, from Lebanon's south, to its mountains, valleys, north, east, Beirut and its great and steadfast suburbs. "The Israeli Army did not spare any bridge, institution, road, civil defence centre, populated area, hospital and United Nations position. "They even hit humanitarian convoys and the assistance sent to us by our Arab brothers, for no other reason but rancour and revenge," he said. In an appeal to the ministers, he said: "Your position with us, your standing with us, is a right and a duty." "Arab security is interlinked, Arab future is interlinked," he said, before removing his glasses and wiping tears from his cheeks with a white handkerchief. His impassioned plea ended with a spontaneous standing ovation from the Arab ministers. Meanwhile, police said 57 people were killed across the country, many caught in the rubble of trapped buildings, and did not immediately confirm the number of deaths that Siniora cited in Hula, where fighting between Israeli infantry units and Hezbollah fighters was ongoing. As dawn rose over the capital, Israeli fighter-bombers pounded Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs with bombs and air-to-ground missiles, sending huge clouds of black smoke into the air over districts that had already been largely reduced to rubble. Warplanes also struck houses in villages around Sidon, the main city in the south, bombed roads linking the region with Syria, including the highway leading to the main border crossing, and hit targets in the Bekaa Valley. In one southern village television pictures showed workers hacking with axes through the rubble and twisted metal struts of a house in a bid to find survivors or recover corpses. The road to Syria, one of the few ways out of Lebanon for people trying to flee, has been knocked out repeatedly as Israel maintains a blockade that has left the country almost completely isolated from the outside world. The southern port city of Tyre, which like Sidon has been swollen by an influx of people fleeing from outlying villages, was cut off from the rest of the country by Israeli bombardments against roads and a makeshift bridge, witnesses said. - AFP [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
