LEBANON: Country will not sign peace with Israel, Lebanese MPs say

Lebanese Members of Parliament dismissed on Sunday (September 3, 2006) the possibillity of peace talks between Israel and Lebanon. Their comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said earlier in the day he had made numerous and unsuccessful overtures to Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to talk peace. "I think Prime Minister Siniora was, was very, you know, explicit in what he said a couple of days ago, that Lebanon will be the last country of the Arab world to sign a peace with Israel. So I think today we are not talking about a peace with Israel, we are talking about the implementation of resolution 1701," Yassin Jabber, a member of Parliament from the Amal movement, said when arriving at the United Nations headquarters to protest at the non-implementation of resolution 1701 by Israel. On Thursday (August 31), Siniora said ..." Lebanon will be the last Arab state to sign a peace deal with Israel on the basis of a just, comprehensive and lasting peace." He was referring to a 2002 initiative that offers peace and normalisation of Arab relations with Israel in return for its return of all land captured in the 1967 Middle East war, establishment of a Palestinian state and a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue. "There has been no contact between the Israeli enemy and the Lebanese government. And this is what Prime Minister Siniora has said on many occasions, and we are certain that there won't be any contact between us and the Israeli enemy, because the country of Lebanon is clear on this issue, and like Prime Minister Siniora said, if there was an agreement in the Middle East, Lebanon will be one of the last countries to sign. The country of Lebanon and its people have a unified stance, there will be no direct contact with the Israeli enemy," Amin Shurri, a Hizbollah member of Parliament, said. Olmert said he made many requests to Siniora and offered "to sit down together, shake hands, make peace and end once and for all the hostility, fanaticism and hatred that part of his country feels towards us." Olmert, whose government took office in May, did not say when the peace feelers were made. He made the comments at a ceremony opening the Israeli school year in Maalot-Tarshiha, a northern town hit by dozens of rockets during 34 days of fighting with Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas that ended in a ceasefire on Aug. Some 1,200 Lebanese and 157 Israelis were killed in the recent fighting, and Israeli attacks caused widespread damage in southern Lebanon and in parts of Beirut. Hizbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets at northern Israel, causing damage in numerous towns and villages.

ITN Source | September 4, 2006

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