Israel wants Hezbollah disarmed
2006-07-18 11:51
Jerusalem - Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni called for the disarmament of the Lebanese group Hezbollah and the stationing of Lebanese troops along the countries' shared border on Tuesday, as UN negotiators pressed for a diplomatic solution to the weeklong crisis.
Livni also called for the unconditional return of the three Israeli soldiers captured by Islamic militants.
"A ceasefire is not enough - the soldiers must be returned with no conditions," she said.
Ceasefire
While Israel has publicly demanded the disarming of Hezbollah, some officials had earlier privately indicated that a ceasefire was possible in exchange for Hezbollah merely withdrawing from the border area and releasing the captured Israeli soldiers.
Livni's comments, however, showed that the government was willing to instead settle for a future disarmament of the group, provided that Lebanon immediately deploy forces along its border to prevent any future rocket attacks against northern Israel.
She also said that "there is another need to prevent Iran and Syria ... from arming Hezbollah in the future".
UN talks
UN negotiator Terje Roed-Larsen said that "concrete ideas" have been presented to end the crisis and that they passed them on to the Israeli government for to deliberate upon them.
He did not provide any further details on the proposals.
The UN team, led by Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special political adviser Vijay Nambiar and Mideast envoy Alvaro de Soto along with Roed-Larsen, arrived in Jerusalem on Monday night to try and broker a ceasefire and ultimately an end to the week of fighting.
- AP