Arab support for Hezbollah grows

CAIRO: Rising anger on the Arab street over the Israeli offensive against Hezbollah apparently has prompted conservative rulers in the region to change their tune. Initial slaps against the Shiite Muslim guerrilla movement for igniting the fight have evolved into criticism of Israel and the mounting toll its offensive is taking among Lebanese civilians. The most dramatic turn has come from Sunni Muslim-led Saudi Arabia, a key US ally, where King Abdullah followed an initial rebuke of Hezbollah for carrying out "uncalculated adventures" with a warning this week that "if the option of peace fails as a result of Israeli arrogance, then the only option remaining will be war."

But even Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, an important mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict for the last 25 years, now mixes his condemnation of Hezbollah's move with sharp criticism of the Israeli response. It was "disproportionate, to say the least," Mubarak said in remarks posted on Time magazine's Web site Friday. "Israel's response demonstrated a collective punishment against the Palestinians and the Lebanese. The bloodshed and the destruction caused by the Israelis went way too far."

As civilian casualties have risen into the hundreds, popular opinion in favour of Hezbollah has swelled as newspapers and television stations have shown graphic pictures of the suffering, including one showing an aid worker carrying the lifeless body of a young Lebanese girl upside down, by the legs with her innards spilling out of a gaping wound in her side. Much of the initial reaction among conservative Sunni Arab rulers was fuelled by a general dislike for the Shiite-Arab Hezbollah and wariness of its Iranian backers, but that has been swept aside in the flood public anger at Israel.

"Arab states are still worried, especially about Iran and Iraq ... but right now we are talking about the destruction of Lebanon," Hassan Al-Ansari, head of the Gulf Studies Centre at Qatar University, said in a telephone interview. "When people see all the stuff going on they cannot sit idle. There is no easy way just to get rid of Hezbollah, therefore those Arab states cannot be quiet, because they have public pressure." The rhetoric has also focused on the United States, whose broad military and diplomatic support that has allowed Israel to prolong and deepen its offensive. Media reports have emphasised that Israel's bombing of Lebanon is being done with US-made warplanes dropping US-made guided bombs - paid for with US tax dollars.

Egypt's semi-official newspaper Al-Ahram published an editorial cartoon yesterday, showing an Israeli hand and American hand clasped together holding a young girl upside down. An arrow pointed at her head says "peace." During US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's brief visit, her statement that the conflict represented the growing pains of a "new Middle East" provided ready-made ammunition for rallying Arabs to unite against Israel. "The Zionist-American plan aims as dismantling resistance and redrawing the map under the banner of a new Middle East where the supreme hegemony is for Israeli entity only," Mohammed Habib, deputy leader of Egypt's main opposition Muslim Brotherhood told AP. "All sects (of Islam) are in need of unity to deter the enemy."

Even Jordan's mainstream Al-Arab Al Yawm newspaper carried a column saying that what Rice really meant was a Middle East free from all kinds of resistance. "So it's important to dismantle all the organisations that fight Israel, especially Hezbollah, Hamas and the other Palestinians factions, because the New Middle East project is an obedient project and everybody must say yes to the American administration!!" the newspaper wrote. "Such projects will never succeed in the region and the people will resist such plans because it is impossible that these people will accept the oppression and the American and Israeli arrogance."

Part of the political difficulty now is that Arab governments have difficulty condemning Hezbollah without appearing at once to condone Israel's response. "The problem is Hezbollah is not an army, it is part of the Lebanese community," Al-Ansari said. "It is not an easy thing to deal with... . What are you going to do, keep quiet, let the Israelis do whatever they want to do?" Some shifts in position have been more subtle than that of Saudi Arabia. Where Jordan initially accused unspecified forces of dragging Lebanon into a conflict, the government's recent focus has been the increasing number of civilian casualties in what King Abdullah II has called a result of Israel's "aggression."

In Egypt yesterday, Mubarak remained critical of Hezbollah, saying "some forces are provoking conflict ... to achieve their private interests." But at the same time he chastised the turn the fight had taken. "Israel will lose a lot ... from the continuation of the military operation, which is concentrating, sadly, on civilian targets," the Egyptian leader said in an interview carried by the official Middle East News Agency. Fatma Hassan Al Sayegh, a professor of modern Gulf history at United Arab Emirates University, said she was surprised by the initial reaction, given that the foe was Israel. But as Hezbollah has shown resilience and garnered support among the masses, the governments have had to back away from their stance, she said.

"Don't forget Saudi has a large Shiite population ... and because of that I think they realize that they have taken the wrong attitude at the wrong time," she said in a telephone interview. "We know that inside they have this attitude to the Shiites and Hezbollah, but we are surprised to see it appear at such a time." And the people seem to have put aside Shiite-Sunni animosities to concentrate on the common enemy: Israel. "Oh Sunni, Oh Shiite, let's fight the Jews," a crowd chanted outside Cairo's Istiqama Mosque yesterday. "The Jews and the Americans are killing our brothers in Lebanon." The protesters carried photos of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah alongside those of former Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, whose Arab nationalist policies helped lead to the 1967 war.

Al-Ansari suggested that the shift in position from some Arab leaders could be not only because of public pressure, but also to what many believe has been a disproportionate Israeli response to Hezbollah's actions. "The Arab governments, they look at it from a rational point of view - they know it's going to be a big mess at their doors and they have to deal with it," he said. "From the beginning they made their positions clear (but) nobody was expecting the reaction by the Israelis this way."-AP

Israel pulls back from flashpoint Hezbollah town

Israeli forces pulled back from positions on the outskirts of a Hezbollah stronghold town that was the scene of the deadliest battles of their advance into south Lebanon, police said Saturday.

Tanks and armored vehicles left the hills overlooking the main border town of Bint Jbeil late Friday and returned to Marun Al-Ras, which was captured by Israeli forces on July 23.

But Israeli troops in Marun Al-Ras continued to bombard Bint Jbeil, a stronghold of the Shiite militant group, as well as nearby Aitarun and Ainata with over 350 rockets, police said.

The pullback took place amid clashes which the Israeli military said left six Israeli soldiers wounded, including one in a serious condition.

Advancing Israeli forces have encountered fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas since they moved across the border, stepping up their massive air and ground offensive on Lebanon.

Nine soldiers were killed in the area on July 26 in the heaviest single-day toll since the conflict began on July 12 when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said Israeli troops "have modified their deployment because of the developments on the ground in the Marun Al-Ras Bint Jbeil sector." She said military operations were underway in the area, but did not elaborate.

Israel's security cabinet decided on Thursday to step up its air war against Lebanon and call up thousands of reserve troops but also said it would restrict ground operations.

After initially vowing to destroy Hezbollah, Israel is now seeking to expel the militia from a two-kilometer (one-mile) strip along Lebanon's side of the border and occupy the zone until a mooted international force can take over.

Early Saturday, Israeli air forces renewed raids on Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, destroying a four-wheel-drive vehicle in a missile strike, the state news agency ANI said.

The driver of the vehicle escaped "miraculously" unharmed when he jumped out of the vehicle which was hit by an air-to-ground missile in the first raid on the area since early Wednesday, the agency said.

Only the burned-out wreckage was left of the vehicle after the explosion of the missile, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.

Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted cars and trucks across Lebanon since the start of the Israeli offensive on the country on July 12 when the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah captured two soldiers.

Israeli forces also bombarded from the air and the sea various regions of southern Lebanon, targeting valleys and houses, police said. There were no reports of casualties.

Early Saturday, the bodies of eight civilians, including a couple and their three children in a car hit by a missile, were found on the roads of southern Lebanon following Israeli bombardments on the region, officials said.

The bodies of three other civilians killed by shrapnel, some partly decomposed, were found on roads near Tyre, he said.

The deaths bring to 439 the number of people killed, including 368 civilians, in Lebanon by the Israeli military onslaught on the country launched after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12.

UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland said Friday that more than 600 people had been killed in Lebanon since the start of the Israeli offensive, citing the Lebanese health ministry.

Rescue workers say dozens more civilians, including a large number of children, are still buried underneath the rubble of houses destroyed in Israeli air strikes around Tyre.

Hezbollah has announced the death of 32 of its fighters, including two rescue workers, while its Shiite ally Amal reported the death of six of its militants since July 12.

A total of 51 Israelis have also died in cross-border fighting, most of them soldiers.-AFP

Stop killings, Britain tells LTTE

The United Kingdom urged the LTTE to bring an end to killings, intimidation, acts of violence and abductions. They raised these concerns during a meeting with the LTTE leadership. "The meeting was an opportunity to discuss the current situation, its impact on civilians and the role of the international community," British High Commission officials said after talks with the representatives of the LTTE. "During the talks, we raised concerns about the continuing high levels of violence including the issue of child soldiers," the High Commission quoted the officials as saying. "We stressed the importance of bringing an end to the killings, intimidation, acts of violence and abductions. The commitments made at Geneva should be fulfilled by both parties and the cease-fire adhered to. We reaffirmed our support for the vital work of the Norwegian facilitators and the important role of the SLMM."

The officials also stressed the need for dialogue. It was imperative that the parties engaged in talks at all levels in order to solve problems, overcome misunderstandings and build trust and confidence. They have also pointed out that a dialogue was necessary if progress was to be made towards a sustainable peace settlement which addressed the aspirations of all communities in Sri Lanka.