REUTERS
Demonstrators gesture at a placard with a picture of United States President George W. Bush during a protest in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Thousands of Malaysians protested against Israel at the front door of a global security forum attended by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Asian counterparts.
WASHINGTON (AP):
President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said yesterday they want an international force dispatched quickly to the Mideast but said any plan to end the fighting must address long-running regional disputes to be effective.
The leaders, standing side by side in the White House's East Room after meeting in the Oval Office, said they want to see a United Nations resolution aimed at ending the more than two-week-old battle between Israel and Hezbollah militants introduced next week. Bush announced he was sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice back to the region today to negotiate the terms.
Bush said they envisioned a resolution providing "a framework for the cessation of hostilities on an urgent basis and mandating the multinational force."
"This is a moment of intense conflict in the Middle East," Bush said. "Yet, our aim is to turn it into a moment of opportunity and a chance for broader change in the region."
Any suggestion that Blair would distance himself from Bush by calling for an immediate, unconditional end to Israel's campaign against Hezbollah militants that effectively control southern Lebanon did not materialise when he spoke in the East Room in nearly identical terms to his American counterpart.
Addressing the root cause
The leaders' united stance sets them against many other European and Arab nations that want an immediate ceasefire and have deplored the impact of the Israeli offensive on Lebanon. Bush and Blair insisted that any solution to the current crisis must also address its root causes.
They referred particularly to the call contained in a 2004 U.N. Security Council resolution that Lebanese militias such as Hezbollah be disarmed - something the Lebanese government has been unable and unwilling to do.
The position by Washington and London has been interpreted by Israel as a green light to continue its offensive as long as it takes to cripple the Shi'ite Muslim militant group.
Israel's punishing campaign of air strikes, artillery shelling and
clashes, which began after Hezbollah crossed the border and captured two Israeli soldiers, has killed an estimated 600 Lebanese. More than 50 Israelis have died, most of them soldiers.
"In Lebanon, Hezbollah and its Iranian and Syrian sponsors are willing to kill and use violence to stop the spread of peace and democracy," Bush said. "They're not going to succeed."
Bush said the plan developed by he and Blair would "make every effort to achieve a lasting peace out of this process."
