MIDDLE EAST: Israel says hoping for a calm Middle East after completing withdrawal from Lebanon

An Israeli spokeswoman expressed hopes for a calmer Middle East on Sunday morning (October 1), after the Jewish state had completed a handover of southern Lebanon territories to the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers under a ceasefire to end a war with Hizbollah guerrillas. Israeli soldiers could be seen sleeping near their tanks -- redeployed along the border -- after they padlocked the border gate at Zarit close to where Iranian-supported Hizbollah fighters seized two soldiers on July 12 and triggered the conflict with U.S. ally Israel that sent shockwaves through the Middle East. Israel sent 10,000 troops into south Lebanon before a truce took hold on Aug. 14. A few dozen remained by the weekend and Israel wanted them out before Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, which starts at dusk on Sunday. Military sources said a few Israeli soldiers would remain on the Lebanese side of the divided border village of Ghajar until security arrangements were finalised. "Israel is hopeful that the deployment of Lebanese soldiers for the first time in almost 40 years along the Israeli-Lebanese border. No Hizbollah terrorists -- Lebanese soldiers who are the ones who are taking over the sovereignty of the Lebanese country. This is a new situation, we are very hopeful and the fact that it will bring about a new stable, calm, tranquil Middle East," said Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Around 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the fighting -- the worst since Israel's 1982 invasion. Sunday's withdrawal was much more low key than a pullout in 2000 after 22 years of occupation. Although the war had widespread support in Israel, many Israelis believe it was badly handled by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government. Hizbollah hailed as a victory the fact it survived the onslaught of the Middle East's mightiest army. U.N. Resolution 1701, which ended the war, authorises up to 15,000 troops from the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to join a similar number of Lebanese army troops in the south, with a demilitarised zone south of the Litani River. But Hizbollah has rejected international calls for it to disarm. Israeli television said that despite the ground pullout, Israel would "retain the right" to overfly Lebanese territory and patrol Lebanon's coast, arguing that the U.N. resolutions were not being fully observed by Hizbollah. Israel's Defence Ministry has ordered troops at the border to be ready to fire at anyone who could be considered a threat. While Israel sees the deployment of Lebanese troops and a beefed up U.N. force to southern Lebanon as a success, it did not achieve its aims of recovering the captured soldiers or preventing Hizbollah from firing barrages of rockets. Olmert's popularity has tumbled. Meanwhile, Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's prestige at home and in the Arab world was boosted massively, though the war also exposed Lebanon's internal fault lines.

ITN Source | October 1, 2006

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