VARIOUS: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Israel after an unexpected visit to Lebanon

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel from Lebanon on Monday (July 24) on a visit aimed at creating conditions for a "sustainable ceasefire" in Israel's war with Hizbollah. Rice met Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and is due to meet Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday (July 25). She will also meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. On a prior stopover in Beirut, battered by two weeks of Israeli bombing, Rice put forward truce proposals similar to Israel's own demand for Hizbollah to pull back from the border to allow an international force to deploy, Lebanese politicians said. "Any peace is going to have to be based on enduring principles and not on temporary solutions," Rice told reporters in Jerusalem before dinner with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. While saying she has no plan for Middle East shuttle diplomacy, Rice's schedule this week resembles just that. She headed to Jerusalem after a surprise visit to Beirut and will also visit Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. Among issues on the table are an international force for south Lebanon and getting Hizbollah to move back from the border as well as the return of Israeli soldiers. Rice and Olmert's talks will also deal with the question of what can be done to ease the suffering for civilians in Lebanon, which estimates one-fifth of its population has been displaced by Israeli bombing. Most of the dead are civilians. "We will talk about how to get to an enduring a cessation of violence, how to deal with the significant humanitarian problems that are currently facing the people of Lebanon. I think that everyone wants to see innocent civilians in better circumstances that they are currently and we will talk about it," Rice said. The United States backs the idea of a humanitarian corridor to get help to the needy, an idea that Israel has also said it could support. Israel wants Hizbollah to leave the border area immediately and free the captured soldiers without conditions. Rice has made clear she is not seeking a quick ceasefire and any solution should address the root causes of the conflict -- for which Washington and Israel blame Hizbollah and its backers in Iran and Syria. Despite the diplomacy, Israeli forces battled Hizbollah in southern Lebanon and planes kept up daily air raids. At least 377 people in Lebanon and 41 Israelis have died in the conflict, ignited by Hizbollah's capture of two soldiers on July 12.

ITN Source | July 25, 2006

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