Annan: Israel To Lift Lebanon Blockade in 48 Hours

[bemildred]

Xpost from LBN.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan told reporters in Cairo on Tuesday that he expects Israel will lift its blockade against Lebanon within the next 48 hours. Israel denied it.

Annan was optimistic that the blockade would end this week, he said, “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.”

Israeli officials were more reserved in their assessment, however. Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told the AFP news service that Israel would not lift the blockade until it is clear that U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 is being implemented.

"When the Lebanese government, augmented by international forces is ready to enforce the arms embargo against Israel will be ready to lift restrictions on movement of people and cargo," said Regev.

Arutz Sheva

[msmcghee]

1. I think the DU interpreter mistook . .

. . the brackets aroung (Hizbullah) in the quote above as an unknown HTML command - and therefore did not print the word.

This was in the quote,

When the Lebanese government, augmented by international forces is ready to enforce the arms embargo against <Hizbullah> Israel will be ready to lift restrictions on movement of people and cargo," said Regev.

[bemildred]

2. You are correct, it would do that. nt

[Tom Joad]

3. The world waits, however, for an arms embargo against Israel,

it really is crucial that Israel not be allowed to destroy nations at will.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tom Joad]

5. As i said, it is important for Israel to abide by international law, and

not use weapons in wars of aggression against neighboring States, or against the Palestinian people. Israel's illegal use of US weapons must be investigated. It is, after all, US law. Especially the Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts. These laws put strict limits on how these weapons can be used.

[msmcghee]

6. As I said, the idea of an arms embargo against . .

. . a state that is defending itself from attack is the hieght of absurdity - deserving of sarcasm.

It's result, as far as it is successful, would be to cause more Israeli dead and less dead among those who are attacking Israel - thus creating a closer "balance" in the number of dead between the attacker and the defender - Hizbullah and Israel in this case.

The result would also be to encourage more attacks by emboldened Arabs resulting in many more dead on both sides - as they would no doubt believe they could kill more Israelis before the UN would demand that they quit.

The only reason Israel has not been over-run to date is that Israel does have an advantage in arms - arms that Israel has never used to initiate an attack, unprovoked by violence, against her enemies.

In any case I will continue to post this opinion until I am banned if that's your intention.

[msmcghee]

7. The absurdity of your statement . .

. is that if there was an arms embargo against Hizbullah and the other militias (I know, impossible) there would be no war. There would be peace in the ME.