Israel said yesterday that it would lift its blockade of Lebanon once it was sure that Beirut was enforcing an arms embargo against Hezbollah, following comments by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the restrictions would be lifted within 48 hours.
"When the Lebanese government augmented by international forces are ready to enforce the arms embargo against Hezbollah, Israel will be ready to lift restrictions on movement of people and cargo," foreign ministry spokesman Marc Regev told reporters.
"When they're ready, we'll be ready. We're not going to lift restrictions until we're convinced that this integral part of [UN] resolution 1701 is being implemented," he said.
In Egypt on the latest leg of a Middle East tour to bolster the three-week-old truce in Lebanon, Annan said he expected the blockade to be lifted within 48 hours.
"Yes, within 48 hours," he answered. "Because we are all working very hard and with a bit of goodwill and reasonableness, we should be able to resolve it within the next 48 hours."
Israel imposed its air and sea blockade on Lebanon at the outset of its 34-day offensive against Hezbollah on July 12, which it said was aimed at preventing the Shiite militia from receiving arms.
Following a UN-brokered ceasefire on Aug. 14, it all traffic into the country has had to be coordinated ahead of time with Israel. Aid flights have landed regularly at Beirut international airport after receiving Israeli authorization.
The only two companies currently authorized to operate regular commercial flights to Beirut, via Amman, are Lebanon's Middle East Airlines and Royal Jordanian.
Officer wounded
Meanwhile, a remote-controlled bomb yesterday wounded a senior police intelligence officer who played a key role in the investigation into the slaying of a former Lebanese prime minister. Security officials said four of the officer's aides and bodyguards were killed in the sophisticated attack in south Lebanon.
Lieutenant Colonel Samir Shehade, deputy chief of the intelligence department in Leb-anon's national police force, was taken to the Hammoud hospital in Sidon, and hospital officials said his condition was stable.
The four dead were Shehade's aides and bodyguards, and another five were wounded in the attack, which occurred as Shehade's two-vehicle police convoy drove by the village of Rmaile, near the southern port city of Sidon.
Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation that the blast was caused by a roadside bomb loaded with nails. He said that it targeted the car normally driven by Shehade, who was traveling in the other vehicle at the time.
Fatfat did not say who might have been behind the attack but said it could have been aimed at Lebanese security forces.
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