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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 July 1999 Issue No. 436 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 1 - 7 July 1999 Issue No. 436
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Special Interview Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Blaming Netanyahu
By Khaled DawoudThe Israeli air raids on civilian targets in Lebanon overnight Thursday and early Friday came as very bad news for Arab countries which had been hoping that the election of Israeli Labour leader Ehud Barak on 17 May would end the ongoing tension in the region and revive peace talks.
Several Arab countries, particularly Syria, were quick to lay blame on outgoing Israeli Premier Binyamin Netanyahu who did not want to leave office without adding to his previous record of damaging peace negotiations between the Arabs and Israel. Some Arab voices were even quicker to defend Barak than his own Labour Party officials who said that he knew nothing about the attacks. However, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Arens denied that his government was trying to embarrass Barak and stated that he was constantly updated on the situation and the target list.
President Hosni Mubarak strongly denounced the Israeli air raids: "The Israeli military operation against Lebanese territory was an assault out of all proportion to the events in northern Israel." Mubarak was referring to Israeli allegations that the air raids were a response to Katyusha rocket attacks against settlements in northern Israel by Hizbullah's resistance fighters. Hizbullah said it fired rockets at northern Israel in retaliation for a week of Israeli raids against civilian targets in south Lebanon. Mubarak said the Israeli attack was "a serious escalation that violates international conventions and does nothing to help the resumption of the peace process."
The Arab League sent urgent letters to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and UN Security Council members protesting the devastating Israeli attacks. Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid stressed in the messages the need for the Security Council "to live up to its responsibilities to force Israel to pull out of south Lebanon". An Arab League statement added that Abdel-Meguid had also underscored Lebanon's "right to obtain [financial] compensation for the loss of life and material damage sustained in the attacks."
Syria also strongly condemned the Israeli attacks but laid the blame on Netanyahu. This is in line with what seems to be a warming of contacts with the newly-elected Barak. Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad and Barak exchanged unprecedented words of praise in two separate interviews published in a London-based Arabic daily last week. A commentary read out on the state-owned radio called upon Barak to form a new government as quickly as possible to prevent Netanyahu from launching a full-scale invasion. President Assad also met Sunday with a French envoy in an effort to ease tension in Lebanon. Diplomatic sources said the United States and France had intensified their contacts with Syria, Lebanon and Israel to assure that calm would prevail and that no further revenge attacks would be carried out by Israel.
The United States blamed Hizbullah for starting the latest round of violence and urged "maximum restraint" by all sides. State Department spokesman James Rubin said the US had contacted Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Sharaa and the Syrian ambassador in Washington in an attempt to bring Syrian pressure to bear on Hizbullah. "The situation has escalated dramatically as a result of Hizbullah's firing of Katyushas into northern Israel. Israel has retaliated with strikes against civilian infrastructure in Lebanon. We deeply regret the loss of life on both sides. We call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and to calm this dangerous situation," Rubin told reporters.
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi arrived in Damascus on Sunday for talks with Syrian counterparts on the situation in Lebanon. A Transport Ministry delegation accompanying Kharazi will head to Beirut to evaluate the damage done by the raids and help rebuild destroyed bridges. Tehran is one of Hizbullah's key supporters in its fight against Israeli occupation and its attempt to liberate occupied south Lebanon.
An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman called for international pressure on Israel to end its "savage and criminal behaviour". The spokesman added that "the attacks represent the belligerent and aggressive spirit of the Zionist regime in the region." The Iranian official said that "the powers that supply the [Zionist] regime with the latest in armaments are also responsible for these crimes."
Billionaire Saudi Prince Walid Bin Talal has offered $30 million to rebuild the power plants while Syria has offered emergency electricity supplies.
Jordan's Prime Minister Abdul-Raouf Al-Rawabdeh, who was on an official visit to Beirut when the bombing started, said: "We denounce this aggression in principle because we believe it is not justified and because it targets civilians and infrastructure that Lebanon has worked so hard to build. "
Iraq, meanwhile, pinned blame on the United States and warned fellow Arab countries that Washington could not be trusted. "The Zionist entity would not have launched this aggression if it had not been assured of US backing within the UN Security Council," said the ruling Baath Party's newspaper, Al-Thawra. It urged Arab countries to take a joint stand "to face up to the challenge instead of counting on the United States, which only ends up betraying them each time."
The Palestinian Authority has accused Israel of harming Middle East peace efforts by attacking Lebanon. Meanwhile, the militant Hamas group said that this "reprehensible aggression sends a clear message of the kind of peace the Zionist enemy believes in. That message should be studied and digested by those who welcomed the advent of the Barak era and by those who stupidly and short-sightedly support him. The Zionist attacks reveal the real and ugly face of the Israeli occupation, whether it wears the mask of the Likud Party or the Labour Party."
