Reuters : Lebanon vows to break Israeli blockade

Lebanon vows to break Israeli blockade

By Alistair Lyon | Special Correspondent | September 6, 2006

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon vowed on Wednesday to bust Israel's eight-week-old blockade of its ports and airport unless it is lifted within two days as envisaged by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Israel imposed the embargo, bombing Beirut airport and denying ships access to Lebanese ports, one day after Hizbollah guerrillas captured two of its soldiers on July 12 and sparked a war that was halted by a U.N. truce nearly five weeks later.

"We will wait for the 48 hours given by Kofi Annan, and if the situation is resolved, we will thank him," Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh told journalists on the sidelines of an Arab foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo.

"If it is not, the Lebanese government will take the necessary measures and we will break the blockade with all our might," he said, without specifying what steps he had in mind.

Israel said earlier it could gradually lift the embargo as Lebanese and U.N. forces control entry points to stop Hizbollah rearming, but did not say when restrictions would be eased.

"I am still hopeful that the air, land and sea blockade will be lifted in the next 36 to 48 hours and I'm working on that with the participants," Annan told a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.

Annan, speaking after talks on Turkey's contribution to a bigger UNIFIL peacekeeping force to shore up the truce in Lebanon, has been trying to broker a deal to end the blockade.

In a sign the embargo may be crumbling, British Airways/BMED said it was resuming direct flights to Beirut after the British government had given assurances that it would be safe to do so.

Lebanon's Middle East Airlines and Royal Jordanian began flying regularly into the capital last month, but have complied with Israel's insistence that all such flights go via Amman. Qatar Airways resumed direct flights to Beirut on Monday.

"We don't have a problem with a graduated lifting of the restrictions," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev told Reuters. "We can lift restrictions when they (U.N. and Lebanese forces) are ready to enforce the arms embargo."

Annan is due to report to the Security Council soon on progress toward implementing Resolution 1701 that led to the Israeli-Hizbollah truce on August 14.

ECONOMIC DAMAGE

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has said that if the blockade goes on for another 20 days, the economic losses would equal the nearly $1 billion in aid promised by international donors to help the country get back to its feet after the war.

A Lebanese political source has said the first step in the deal Annan is trying to arrange would be for Israel to end its control over flights in and out of Beirut.

Lebanon would then immediately ask the United Nations to help patrol its coast. French, Italian and Greek naval ships would deploy offshore, paving the way for Israel to end its naval blockade. Germany would later take over the sea patrols.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy reiterated that France was ready to help monitor Lebanon's coast.

UNIFIL commander Major-General Alain Pellegrini told France's Europe 1 radio the truce in Lebanon remained shaky.

"It remains fragile as far as there is an Israeli presence in Lebanon because every incident, misunderstanding or provocation can escalate very quickly," he said.

Two Lebanese soldiers were killed and a third was wounded in the south as they tried to defuse an Israeli land mine.

Pellegrini's spokesman, Alexander Ivanko, said UNIFIL had protested to Israel on Tuesday over truce violations.

Israel says the main violation is Hizbollah's failure to free two soldiers it seized on July 12. Hizbollah wants Lebanese prisoners held in Israel to be released in return.

Annan said he would send a secret envoy to the region to work on the issue before the end of the week.

Turkey's parliament approved on Tuesday providing non-combat troops to UNIFIL. Erdogan declined to say how many would go, but officials have said the number was unlikely to exceed 1,000.

Israeli troops withdrew from nine more border posts they had occupied in the war, Lebanese security sources said.

Annan has said Israel should complete its pullout once 5,000 UNIFIL troops are on the ground. The force now numbers 3,100. A French heavy battalion armed with tanks and artillery is due next week, with another Italian contingent to follow.

(Additional reporting by Jerusalem, Ankara, Cairo and Paris bureaux)

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