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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=5 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-weight:bold'>End This Tragedy Now</span></font></b><br>
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>
Must Be Made to Respect International Law<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>By Fouad
Siniora<br>
Wednesday, August 9, 2006; A17</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>BEIRUT</span></font></st1:place></st1:City><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>A
military solution to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>'s
savage war on <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>
and the Lebanese people is both morally unacceptable and totally unrealistic.
We in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>
call upon the international community and citizens everywhere to support my
country's sovereignty and end this folly now. We also insist that <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region> be made
to respect international humanitarian law, including the provisions of the
Geneva Conventions, which it has repeatedly and willfully violated.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>As the
world watches, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>
has besieged and ravaged our country, created a humanitarian and environmental
disaster, and shattered our infrastructure and economy, putting an intolerable
strain on our social and economic systems. Fuel, food and medical equipment are
in short supply; homes, factories and warehouses have been destroyed; roads
severed, bridges smashed and airports disabled.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
damage to infrastructure alone is running into the billions of dollars, as are
the losses to owners of private property, and the long-term direct and indirect
costs due to lost revenue in tourism, agriculture and industrial sectors are
expected to be many more billions. <st1:country-region w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region>'s
well-known achievements in 15 years of postwar development have been wiped out
in a matter of days by <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
deadly military might.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>For all
this carnage and death, and on behalf of all Lebanese, we demand an international
inquiry into <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>'s
criminal actions in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region>
and insist that <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>
pay compensation for its wanton destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Israel</span></font></st1:place></st1:country-region>
seems to think that its attacks will sow discord among the Lebanese. This will
never happen. <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>
should know that the Lebanese people will remain steadfast and united in the
face of this latest Israeli aggression -- its seventh invasion -- just as they
were during nearly two decades of brutal occupation. The people's will to
resist grows ever stronger with each village demolished and each massacre
committed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>On July
25, at the international conference for <st1:country-region w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region>
in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:City>, I
proposed a comprehensive seven-point plan to end the war. It was well received
by the conference and got the unanimous and full backing of the Lebanese Council
of Ministers, in which Hezbollah is represented, as well as of the speaker of
parliament and a majority of parliamentary blocs. Representatives of diverse
segments of Lebanese civil society have come out strongly in favor, as has the
Islamic-Christian Summit, representing all the religious confessions, ensuring
a broad national consensus and preserving our delicate social equilibrium.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The plan,
which also received the full support of the 56 member states of the
Organization of the Islamic Conference, included an immediate, unconditional
and comprehensive cease-fire and called for:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>· The
release of Lebanese and Israeli prisoners and detainees through the
International Committee of the Red Cross.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>· The
withdrawal of the Israeli army behind the "blue line."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>· A
commitment from the U.N. Security Council to place the Shebaa Farms and Kfar
Shouba Hills areas under U.N. jurisdiction until border delineation and
Lebanese sovereignty over them are fully settled. Further, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> must surrender all maps of remaining land
mines in southern <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>
to the United Nations.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>·
Extension of the Lebanese government's authority over its territory through its
legitimate armed forces, with no weapons or authority other than that of the
Lebanese state, as stipulated in the Taif accord. We have indicated that the
Lebanese armed forces are ready and able to deploy in southern <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region>, alongside the U.N. forces there, the
moment <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>
pulls back to the international border.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>· The
supplementing of the U.N. international force operating in southern <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> and its
enhancement in numbers, equipment, mandate and scope of operation, as needed,
to undertake urgent humanitarian and relief work and guarantee stability and
security in the south so that those who fled their homes can return.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>· Action
by the United Nations on the necessary measures to once again put into effect
the 1949 armistice agreement signed by <st1:country-region w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>
and to ensure adherence to its provisions, as well as to explore possible
amendments to or development of those provisions as necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>· The
commitment of the international community to support <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> on all levels, including
relief, reconstruction and development needs.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>As part
of this comprehensive plan, and empowered by strong domestic political support
and the unanimous backing of the cabinet, the Lebanese government decided to
deploy the Lebanese armed forces in southern Lebanon as the sole domestic
military force in the area, alongside U.N. forces there, the moment Israel
pulls back to the international border.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:country-region w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Israel</span></font></st1:country-region> responded
by slaughtering more civilians in the biblical town of <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Qana</st1:place></st1:City>. Such horrible scenes have been repeated
daily for nearly four weeks and continue even as I write these words.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
resolution to this war must respect international law and U.N. resolutions, not
just those selected by Israel, a state that deserves its reputation as a pariah
because of its consistent disdain for and rejection of international law and
the wishes of the international community for over half a century.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:country-region w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Lebanon</span></font></st1:country-region> calls,
once again, on the United Nations to bring about an immediate cease-fire to
relieve the beleaguered people of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Only then can the root
causes of this war -- Israeli occupation of Lebanese territories and its
perennial threat to Lebanon's security, as well as Lebanon's struggle to regain
full sovereignty over all its territory -- be addressed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>I believe
that a political resolution rooted in international law and based on these
seven points will lead to long-term stability. If Israel would realize that the
peoples of the Middle East cannot be cowed into submission, that they aspire
only to live in freedom and dignity, it could also be a stepping stone to a
final solution of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict, which has plagued our region
for 60 years.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The 2002
Arab summit in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Beirut</st1:place></st1:City>,
which called for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace based on the principle
of land for peace, showed the way forward. A political solution cannot,
however, be implemented as long as Israel continues to occupy Arab land in
Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights and as long as it
wages war on innocent people in Lebanon and Palestine. As Jawaharlal Nehru
said, "the only alternative to coexistence is co-destruction."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Enough
destruction, dispossession, desperation, displacement and death! <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region> must be
allowed to reclaim its position in this troubled region as a beacon of freedom
and democracy where justice and the rule of law prevail, and as a refuge for
the oppressed where moderation, tolerance and enlightenment triumph.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-style:italic'>The writer is prime minister of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</span></font></i><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>© 2006 The
Washington Post Company<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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