US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Beirut yesterday to seek a "sustainable" ceasefire in Lebanon, where Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli forces are fighting in the south.
Rice met Prime Minister Fouad Siniora after her heavily guarded motorcade sped through Beirut from the US embassy to the north where her helicopter had landed after departing from Cyprus.
"Thank you for your courage and steadfastness," she told Siniora, who has repeatedly pleaded for an immediate ceasefire.
On her way to the region, Rice said she was seeking a "sustainable" ceasefire in a war that has cost 373 dead in Lebanon and at least 37 Israeli lives in nearly two weeks.
A US official in Rice's party said she would announce aid for Lebanon, where Israeli bombing has displaced half a million people and wrecked installations worth an estimated US$1 billion.
Rice has no plans to meet Hezbollah leaders, but was due to see Shiite Muslim Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a pro-Syrian politician who has acted as a link between the Islamist group's leaders and Siniora since the war erupted.
Ground assault
Meanwhile, heavy fighting erupted yesterday as Israeli ground forces pushed further into Lebanon, entering another Hezbollah stronghold, and 10 Israeli soldiers were wounded, the military said.
An Israeli helicopter also crashed in northern Israel near the Lebanese border after hitting an electrical wire while making an emergency landing, causing two casualties and starting a large brush fire atop a hill, the army said, adding that the crash was caused by a technical problem and not enemy fire.
Following an intense artillery barrage, Israeli troops took control of a hilltop in Bint Jbail, the Lebanese town where Hezbollah's leader had made a defiant speech after Israel ended its occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000. However, troops had not taken the town itself, military officials said.
Steady gunfire
Nearly constant gunfire and explosions could be heard in southern Lebanon from the Israeli side of the border, and large plumes of gray smoke rose over the area. Hezbollah guerrillas were firing mortars into northern Israeli and anti-tank missiles at Israeli forces, the army said.
It said at least one Israeli tank was hit by heavy Hezbollah fire and that 10 soldiers were wounded in the fighting. The army denied Arab media reports that five tanks were destroyed.
The military said it captured two Hezbollah guerrillas, and Israeli media said attacks by Israel's air force had caused some Hezbollah casualties.
The army said it was expanding its ground operation in Lebanon, which had been limited during the two-week offensive to pinpoint operations near the border -- a policy that military analysts said may well be insufficient to achieve Israel's goal of pushing Hezbollah back and destroying its ability to attack Israel.
Two more rockets were fired into Israel yesterday, landing in the northern town of Kiryat Shmona, rescue officials said. No casualties or damage were reported.
Ceasefire deal
The US, which blames Hezbollah and its allies in Syria and Iran for the crisis, wants any ceasefire deal to remove the threat to Israel posed by the Shiite group.
"We believe that a ceasefire is urgent," Rice told reporters during her flight to the Middle East. "It is important to have conditions that will make it also sustainable."
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who wants to swap the two soldiers for Lebanese and Palestinians in Israeli jails, said Israel's assaults would not stop cross-border rocket fire.
"I assure you that this goal will not be achieved," he said.
Israel, after initially dismissing the idea, now says it would be willing for an international force to dislodge Hezbollah from south Lebanon and take control of Lebanon's border with Syria to stop the guerrillas from re-arming.
"It doesn't matter who runs the mission, it's just important that the mission is accomplished," Israeli Vice-Premier Shimon Peres told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.
But just as Hezbollah has fought Israeli attempts to drive it from the south, it would surely resist military coercion by any international force, assuming one could be assembled.
Several EU countries are ready to contribute to a force for Lebanon but problems remain in ensuring it can fulfil its mission, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
"It's a real possibility. It is not an easy force to deploy but we have been working since Wednesday to try to construct a concept that would make it possible to deploy under the umbrella of the UN Security Council," Solana said in Brussels.
also see stories:
Beirutis defy bombing by going to pubs
Sri Lankan maids stuck as other foreigners evacuate
Israel using mobile phones in Lebanon propaganda battle
Israel targets weapons facilities
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
Opposition parties not passing defense funding harms Taiwan’s national security, two US senators said separately in rare public criticism. “I am disappointed to see Taiwan’s opposition parties in parliament [the legislature] slash President [William] Lai’s (賴清德) defense budget so dramatically,” Roger Wicker, a Republican who chairs the US Senate Armed Forces Committee, said on social media. “The original proposal funded urgently needed weapons systems. Taiwan’s parliament should reconsider — especially with rising Chinese threats,” he added. Wicker’s post linked to an article published by Bloomberg that said that the two opposition parties’ move was “potentially jeopardizing the purchases of billions of dollars of
RSS