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.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work