PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak met yesterday morning with Libyan Foreign Minister Omar Al-Montasser to review the Lockerbie situation after the US warned Tripoli to comply with UN resolutions before next February's review, and possible tightening, of sanctions, reports Nevine Khalil. The Libyan official said that his country "will not succumb to US warnings", but at the same time confirmed that Libya is "committed to subscribe to the 1992 [UN] decisions in the proper manner".
Tripoli has refused to hand over two citizens suspected of involvement in the 1988 Pan Am mid-air bombing over Lockerbie which resulted in a six-year UN-imposed air and arms embargo. Al-Montasser said that some legal aspects have to be worked out before handing over the two suspects. "We are working for the benefit of our citizens," he said, "but there are some contradictory legal points" which need to be cleared up before the men are handed over.
After nearly one hour of talks with Mubarak and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, Al-Montasser said his country would support the convening of an Arab summit to discuss recent developments in the region. "We hope that an Arab summit is held and succeeds in forming a united Arab position regarding recent events," he said, referring to last week's US-British strikes against Iraq and the total freeze of the peace process.
Hitting back
IN ONE of the heaviest attacks in nearly three years Hizbullah fighters in south Lebanon fired a hail of rockets at northern Israel yesterday, causing heavy property damage and injuring at least 13 people. The attack occurred a day after Israeli warplanes accidentally killed a woman and six of her children in a raid on suspected Hizbullah positions in Baalbek in eastern Lebanon.
In a statement claiming responsibility for the rocket attacks, Hizbullah denied it had facilities in the area and stressed its commitment to defend and avenge "victims of Zionist aggression."
Lebanese security sources said Hizbullah guerrillas had fired about 60 Katyusha rockets, with 15 of them landing on the border town of Kiryat Shmona. Other rockets were fired at the western Galilee region, closer to the Mediterranean sea, causing roofs of houses in villages and collective farms to collapse. Mayor Chaim Barbivai spoke of tremendous damage in Kiryat Shmona but said most of Israel's northern population had spent the night in shelters, accounting for the light civilian casualties. Witnesses said a rocket smashed into a bank, littering broken glass all around. Electricity was knocked out in some areas but later restored. The Israeli army responded with artillery fire and said it was prepared to launch air strikes, AP reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened a special meeting of his security cabinet to discuss the attack, which re-ignited the debate over Israel's occupation of the 15-kilometre deep security zone in south Lebanon since 1985, Reuters reported.
Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai, meanwhile, sent messages to Lebanon and Syria saying that Israel did not want events to escalate and warned Hizbullah not to attack. An army spokesman expressed regret over what he called the tragic, unintentional consequences of the Tuesday raid on Baalbek.
AFP reported that the Lebanese woman, 35-year-old Nadwa Othman, her three sons and three daughters aged between one and 16, died when an Israeli missile hit a farm where they were seeking shelter at Janta, five kilometres from the Syrian border. Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Al-Hoss said his country would protest to the UN Security Council.
