President sees no need for talks with Israel
President Michel Sleiman reiterated his call on Thursday for the Arab League to hold an urgent summit to discuss means of ending both Israel”s attack on the Gaza strip and its siege of the coastal enclave.
Sleiman also called on the United Nations Security Council to shoulder its responsibilities in this regard.
The president made the remarks to Arab and Western diplomats at Baabda Palace.
He also hailed the steps undertaken to establish diplomatic relations between Lebanon and Syria.
Sleiman stressed the importance of confronting terrorism in all its forms and reinforcing the capabilities of Lebanon”s security armed forces. He also highlighted the need to have the Special Tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and other crimes, "fully operative," to implement the Taif Accord and the decisions of the national dialogue.
He also underlined the importance of reaching an agreement on a national defense strategy and to perform "honest and transparent" parliamentary elections next spring.
Sleiman told diplomats that Lebanon has "approached the friendly and sisterly states to support Lebanon in seeking one of the non-permanent seats in the UN Security Council."
The president stressed that Lebanon was "not interested in any kind of direct or indirect negotiations with Israel because the pending issues … are dealt with in the related United Nations Security Council resolutions, 425 [of 1978] and 1701 [of 2006]," both of which call for Israel to end its occupation of Lebanese territory.
Also on Thursday, a joint delegation of parliamentary speakers from Iran (Ali Larijani), Syria (Mahmoud al-Abrash ) and Indonesia (Agung Laksono) arrived in Beirut for talks with Lebanese officials on the situation in Gaza.
Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri welcomed his three counterparts at Rafik Hariri International Airport and then escorted them to his residence in Ain al-Tineh for talks.
Berri and the delegation signed a memo directed to the head of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pottering, and UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon calling for an immediate end to the war on Gaza.
Larijani described proposals put forward by Middle Eastern and European states to end the Gaza conflict as "honey injected with poison" that would not protect Palestinian rights.
"These plans were called plans to deal with massacres in Gaza. Some of these plans were proposed by some of the states in this region and some of them were put forward by some of the European states," Larijani told reporters in Beirut. "We agree that these proposals do not protect the rights of the Palestinian people. These proposals … resemble honey injected with poison."
The delegation will meet up with Sleiman and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora Friday.
Meanwhile, the United States condemned the launch of rockets into Israel from Lebanon and stressed it did not want to see a second front open up.
"We condemn the attack that took place into Israel," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters, referring to the four rockets that slammed into northern Israel from Lebanon on Thursday.
"It is clearly a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701," which brought a cessation of hostilities in the summer 2006 war with Israel, he added. "We definitely do not want to see this conflict widen."
He said that as part of her diplomatic push for a resolution of the Gaza crisis, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made at least seven phone calls to Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni Wednesday and that the two top diplomats may have discussed the rocket attacks.
Wood also said he believed Israel "showed some restraint," referring to the fact that Israel responded with just five shells, out of keeping with its stated policy of disproportionate fire.
Hizbullah denied responsibility for the attack, which sowed panic on both sides of the tense border. No group claimed responsibility.
On the local scene, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday urged the government to assume its responsibilities and take a "decisive stance" with regard to the rocket attack on northern Israel.
"Any Lebanese party wanting to open a second front with Israel should discuss the issue with the Lebanese government," he said, inferring that Hizbullah had been responsible despite a widespread consensus that it was not. "The government is the only side entitled to open a new front in the South."