European Union
- European countries have pledged to contribute almost 7,000 troops to a U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon. After an emergency meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels, France's Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said between 6,500 and 7,000 troops would be sent. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who attended the meeting, told a news briefing that "more than half the force has been pledged today," referring to a U.N. goal of gathering a total contingent of 15,000. "Europe is providing the backbone to the force," Annan said. Annan said he had asked France to lead the force until the end of February 2007. After that, Italy will provide the next commander.[25]
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France
- Earlier, French President Jacques Chirac said he did not believe the U.N. force in Lebanon required 15,000 troops to secure peace in the region and called the figure excessive. "My feeling is that the figure that was put forward at the beginning of discussions – 15,000 for a reinforced UNIFIL – was a figure that was quite excessive," he said at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. About 170 French troops pulled into the Lebanese port of Naqoura, bringing with them 75 pieces of machinery including trucks, bulldozers and armored personnel carriers. The troops, like the 50 who arrived last week, consist of engineers who will lay the groundwork for additional French troops expected to strengthen the U.N. international force. Rear-Admiral Xavier Magne with the French Navy said they will keep an off-shore ship with an airborne quick reaction force and a hospital. Magne said this was based on lessons learned from the 1980s when French and American barracks came under attack in Lebanon.[25]
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United Nations
- Homes, gardens and highways across south Lebanon are littered with unexploded cluster bombs dropped by Israel, the U.N. said, and the U.S. State Department has reportedly launched an investigation. "There are about 285 cluster bomb locations across south Lebanon, and our teams are still doing surveys and adding new locations every day," said Dalya Farran, spokeswoman for the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center, which has an office in the southern port city of Tyre. The U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center opened a branch in Tyre in 2003, to deal with the issue of land mines. Since the cease-fire, the office has redirected its efforts toward clearing unexploded Israeli bombs from the area. "We find about 30 new locations per day," she said. Since a U.N.-brokered cease-fire took hold 14 August, eight Lebanese have been killed by exploding ordnance, including two children, and 38 people have been wounded, according to a U.N. count. "A lot of them are in civilian areas, on farmland and in people's homes. We're finding a lot at the entrances to houses, on balconies and roofs," Farran said. "Sometimes windows are broken, and they get inside the houses." United Nations demining experts refused to comment on the reported U.S. investigation into whether Israel's use of such weapons might violate American rules, but suggested it violated some aspects of international law. "It's not illegal to use against soldiers or your enemy, but according to Geneva Conventions, it's illegal to use them (cluster bombs) in civilian areas," Farran said. "But it's not up to us to decide if it's illegal – I'm just giving facts and letting others do analysis."[27]
- Belgium said it would supply 302 troops to the U.N. force that will patrol southern Lebanon. Germany, Greece, Spain, Finland and Denmark were set to make similar pledges. Annan, speaking after meeting Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt at the meeting in Brussels, said he hoped for more pledges. "I came with the hope that I will leave Brussels with a large number of soldiers," he said, according to The Associated Press. CNN- reporter Oakley said the Spanish prime minister was also set to commit 600 to 800 troops to the force. Germany and Greece were expected to make naval contributions but not troops on the ground. "The big question is whether this U.N. force will develop the necessary momentum and whether the Europeans will produce the 8,000 to 9,000 troops between them that the U.N. hopes for," Oakley added. As of 30 June, UNIFIL was made up of 1,990 troops from China, France, Ghana, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Ukraine, according to the U.N. Web site.[25]
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 does not require the deployment of U.N. troops to the border, and the Lebanese army, not the U.N. troops, would be charged with disarming Hezbollah, Annan said.[25] Annan said the cease-fire was holding with few infractions but urged the EU to move swiftly to get its soldiers to region. He said he hoped the expanded force could start deploying in "days, not weeks." He had earlier set a target date of 2 September. Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said the entire U.N. force should be in place within two to three months.[28]
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United States
- State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said that the department was aware of the allegations about the cluster bombs. "We are seeking more information," he said, but he declined to comment further. The State Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls launched an investigation into Israel's use of three types of American weapons, anti-personnel munitions that spray bomblets over a wide area, The New York Times reported. The newspaper quoted several current and former U.S. officials as saying they doubted the probe would lead to sanctions against Israel, but that it might be an effort by the Bush administration to ease Arab criticism of its military support for Israel. The U.S. has also postponed a shipment of M-26 artillery rockets—another cluster weapon—to Israel, the paper said.[27]
- U.S. President George W. Bush said he was pleased with Chirac's decision to send more troops. "This is an important step towards finalizing preparations to deploy the United Nations Interim Force of Lebanon," he said. "I applaud the decision of France, as well as the significant pledges from Italy and our other important allies. I encourage other nations to make contributions as well."[25]
- The United States has ruled out committing troops, but is expected to provide logistics support. As a rule, Washington does not participate in peacekeeping missions unless it is commanding the force.[28]
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IDF
- The Israeli army said all the weapons it uses "are legal under international law, and their use conforms with international standards." During the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel said it was forced to hit civilian targets in Lebanon because Hezbollah fighters were using villages as a base for rocket-launchers aimed at Israel. Some 850 Lebanese died in the fighting, compared to 157 Israelis. Lebanon's south is also riddled with land mines, laid by retreating Israeli soldiers who pulled out of the region in 2000 after an 18-year occupation. Hezbollah has also planted mines to ward off Israeli forces. Lebanon has long called for Israel to hand over maps of the minefields.[27]
- Fifty-four percent of the Israelis want army chief Dan Halutz to step down.[27]
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Russia
- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov dismissed claims that Hezbollah has Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles. Israel sent a delegation to Russia last week to complain about the missiles that it says were used by Hezbollah in the recent weeks of fighting in Lebanon; the missiles reportedly have been a particularly effective part of Hezbollah's arsenal. But Ivanov said during a trip to the Russian Far East city of Magadan that the reports are "complete nonsense," news agencies reported. "No kind of evidence of Hezbollah having such equipment has been presented to us," Ivanov said, according to the Interfax news agency.[27]
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Hezbollah
- They were struggling in a boy band, working the West Bank wedding circuit and dreaming of stardom. Now the five singers who make up the Northern Band have come a little closer to their goal, with help from an unwitting ally—Hezbollah guerrilla chief Hassan Nasrallah. At the height of the Israel-Hezbollah war, the band wrote new lyrics, in praise of Nasrallah, for an old tune. The "Hawk of Lebanon" song tapped into Nasrallah's huge popularity among Palestinians and became an instant hit. The song is being played on Arab TV networks, used as a ring tone for cell phones, passed around on e-mail and distributed on unlicensed CDs and tapes. Music stores have trouble keeping up with demand, in part because Israeli soldiers have confiscated some Nasrallah tapes and CDs at checkpoints. Basking in its newfound success, the band has doubled its fee per performance to 1,000 shekels ($230). At a recent wedding in the town of Ramallah, the band was asked to play the Nasrallah song six times. Lead singer and manager Alaa Abu al-Haija, 28, said he gives the audiences what they want to hear. "I see people turning toward Islam, so I have to sing to that," said Alaa, sitting in the living room of his family's two-story house in the northern West Bank village of Yamoun. The lyrics consist of constant repetition of a few simple rhymes: "Hey, you, hawk of Lebanon. Hey, you, Nasrallah. Your men are from Hezbollah and victory is yours with God's help." Alaa and his two younger brothers and band partners—Nour, 25, and Mohammed, 22—are already working on the next song about Nasrallah. Alaa also wrote the Hamas election song, to the same tune as the Nasrallah anthem, but it never reached the same popularity. Palestinian society is divided, with some pledging loyalty to the Islamic militant Hamas, which took power in March 2006, and others backing the Fatah movement of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. However, Hezbollah fever appears to have united the Palestinians, who feel deep resentment against Israel after 39 years of military occupation, including harsh restrictions on travel, commerce and other aspects of daily life. Many admire Hezbollah for holding off Israel's mighty army—similar to the popular support enjoyed by then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein when he fired Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War. "We used to sing for Saddam," said Saed Akrawi, 26, whose perfume shop in downtown Jenin is adorned with a Nasrallah portrait, next to posters of models. "Saddam is gone. We want someone else to sing for."[29]
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Israel
- Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said the "Hawk of Lebanon" song is considered inflammatory and that tapes and CDs containing it will be confiscated. He said police in and around Jerusalem have found no copies of the song so far, but that officers have searched music stores and are on the lookout for contraband.[29]
- Sixty-three percent of Israelis want Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign in a sharp public rebuke over his handling of the war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, a newspaper poll showed. Many Israelis view a U.N.-brokered cease-fire backed by Olmert as a failure for Israel because Hezbollah's leadership was left standing and the two Israeli soldiers, whose capture by Hezbollah on 12 July sparked the war, were still in captivity. The Yedioth Ahronoth poll showed for the first time a majority favored Olmert stepping down. Several surveys suggested a big jump in support for the right-wing Likud party and its leader Benjamin Netanyahu after the 34-day war. Yedioth, Israel's biggest circulation daily, called the poll results a political "earthquake" for Olmert, whose centrist Kadima party crushed Netanyahu's Likud in general elections in March 2006. A similar poll published showed as of 18 August, 41 percent wanted Olmert to resign. Twenty-two percent of Israelis in the poll deemed Netanyahu "most fit" to be prime minister, compared to 11 percent for Olmert. Olmert also trailed ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman with 18 percent and senior statesman Shimon Peres with 12 percent, according to Yedioth. A poll in the Maariv newspaper showed that only 14 percent of Israelis would vote for Olmert if new elections were held, while 26 percent would back Netanyahu, a former prime minister. The Yedioth poll said 45 percent would support Netanyahu.[27]
- Olmert, a career politician who lacks the combat credentials of many of his predecessors, has seen his public standing plummet for failing to crush Hezbollah, which rained some 4,000 rockets on northern Israel during the fighting. "Olmert go home," read one sign at a protest by a few hundred army reservists and family members at the grave of former Prime Minister Golda Meir. The protesters urged Olmert to follow the lead set by Meir, who was forced to resign after the 1973 Middle East war in which Egypt and Syria scored initial successes that caused heavy Israeli casualties. Olmert has put on hold for now his proposal for an Israeli pullout from parts of the occupied West Bank. The proposal was the centerpiece of the government program that won him election in March 2006. But resurgent violence in Gaza, which Israel evacuated 2005, plus the Lebanon war appears to have dampened public enthusiasm for territorial withdrawals. The Maariv poll showed 73 percent of Israelis opposed future unilateral withdrawals.[27]
- Cameron Brown, of Israel's Herzliya Center, said Olmert's political troubles were compounded by a string of government scandals, including an investigation into whether the Israeli president coerced a female employee to have sex with him."These politicians are under fire from several different directions at the same time and I think Olmert is clearly having a rough time. The question is will this force him to step down," Brown said. The Maariv poll showed that if elections were held today, Olmert's Kadima party would win just 14 seats in parliament, compared with the 29 it won at the last polls. Likud would win 24, compared with 12. The left-leaning Labour party would win just nine seats. In addition to calling for Olmert's resignation, 74 percent of Israelis in the Yedioth poll said Defense Minister Amir Peretz, the left-leaning Labour party leader, should step down.[27]
- Mark Regev reiterated Israel would not lift its air and sea embargo of Lebanon until peacekeepers take positions along the Syrian border to block arms shipments to Hezbollah from its two main supporters, Iran and Syria. But Annan said peacekeepers would deploy on the Syrian border only at Lebanon's request, which Beirut has yet to make. Such a move would aggravate tensions with Syria, which views the deployment of international troops along the border as a hostile act. "The resolution does not require the deployment of U.N. troops to the border," Annan said at a news conference after a three-hour meeting with the 25 EU ministers. Regev, however, argued that sending troops to Syrian border is key to enforcing an international arms embargo against Hezbollah imposed under the cease-fire resolution. "The cease-fire calls for an international arms embargo against Hezbollah," Regev said. "So Israel will be willing to allow for unfettered access in and out of Lebanon the minute those international and Lebanese forces are enforcing the arms embargo." The issue is unlikely to prevent the Israeli government, which is under domestic pressure to pull out of Lebanon quickly, from withdrawing its soldiers. However, Israel could use airstrikes on border crossings, roads and bridges to prevent arms smuggling if Lebanese troops and the U.N. force did not stop shipments themselves.[28]
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