JERUSALEM: Rice cancels Beirut trip, stays in Israel to talk

Her diplomatic mission in jeopardy after Israel's bombing of a Lebanese village, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cancelled a visit to Beirut on Sunday (July 30), saying she had work to do in Israel to get a truce. Rice, who returned to the region on Saturday (July 29) in a new push to bring the warring sides together, said she was "deeply saddened" by the Israeli bombing of the village of Qana in southern Lebanon, killing 40 civilians including 23 children. "In the wake of the tragedy that the people and the government of Lebanon are dealing with today, I have decided to postpone my discussions in Beirut. In any case, my work is here today," Rice told reporters, adding that she had cancelled the trip and not the other way around. She spoke after Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said, after the latest Israeli bombing, he could not hold any talks on resolving the Middle East crisis before an immediate ceasefire. Rice stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire, but said she would work very hard to try and end hostilities between Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas and Israeli forces that have killed more than 500 Lebanese and 51 Israelis. "We want a ceasefire as soon as possible. I would have wanted to have had a ceasefire yesterday, if possible. But the parties, have to agree to a ceasefire and there have to be certain conditions in place," Rice said. The United States has been accused of taking sides with the Israelis by not calling for an immediate ceasefire but Rice said she had pressed the case that "extraordinary care" needed to be taken to avoid civilian casualties. Rice strongly rejected any suggestion that the United States was somehow responsible for the violence and said it had been working very hard to deal with the current crisis and find a way to address humanitarian concerns.

ITN Source | July 30, 2006

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