G-8 leaders demand halt to Mideast attacks
Staff and agencies
16 July, 2006
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - World leaders, managing to resolve sharp differences over an escalating crisis between Israel and Lebanon, declared Sunday that extremist groups in the region cannot be allowed to plunge the Middle East into chaos and must immediately halt their attacks.
The statement said it was critical for Israel to "be mindful of the strategic and humanitarian consequences of its actions." It called on Israel "to exercise utmost restraint" by seeking to avoid casualties among innocent civilians and damage to civilian infrastructure.
The statement called for two captured Israeli soldiers to be freed, for the attacks on Israel by Hezbollah militants to stop and for Israel to end its military action. It also expressed support for the Lebanese government.
The crisis has dominated talks among President Bush and the other leaders attending the annual G-8 summit of major industrial countries. The Group of Eight is made up of the United States, Russia, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Canada.
Bush and European leaders disagreed on who should be blamed for the violence, and those differences had to be overcome for the G-8 nations to issue a joint declaration.
While other G-8 leaders questioned whether Israel‘s response to the capture of its soldiers went too far, Bush has placed blame squarely on Hezbollah and its state sponsors — Iran and Syria — and has declined to press Israel for a cease-fire.
In their statement, the leaders expressed "deepening concern about the situation in the Middle East, in particular the rising civilian casualties on all sides and the damage to infrastructure." At least 130 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon, while about a dozen Israeli civilians have lost their lives.
She said the leaders believe that "first of all, that the Israeli soldiers must be returned unharmed, that the attacks on Israel must stop and that then, of course, also the Israeli military action must be ended."
The U.N. Security Council U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1559 in September 2004, calling for the disarmament of all militias and strict respect for Lebanon‘s sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and political independence. Hezbollah, which operates in southern Lebanon, has refused to disarm, saying it is a resistance movement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to be more in line with European leaders who have condemned Israel‘s attacks as excessive. Putin has said it was unacceptable for Hezbollah to take hostages and shell others‘ territory, but also for Israel to use massive force in response.
Putin had molded this year‘s G-8 summit — the first hosted by his country — to showcase Russia‘s re-emergence on the world stage after a devastating economic collapse in 1998.
However, he failed to win a much-anticipated agreement with the U.S. on Russia‘s admission to the World Trade Organization , the 149-nation group that sets the rules for world trade. The United States is the only country that has not signed off on Russia‘s membership in the WTO, and Bush dashed Putin‘s hopes for getting in now.
AP - Sun Jul 16, 12:51 PM ET French President Jacques Chirac gestures while speaking during a media conference at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday July 16, 2006. U.S. President George W. Bush and European allies on Sunday urged Israel to show restraint after four days of steady bombing against its neighbor Lebanon as turmoil in the Middle East overshadowed the Group of Eight summit. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
G8 leaders urge to end to Mideast violence -1
STRELNA (near St. Petersburg), July 16 (RIA Novosti) - G8 leaders adopted a statement on the situation around the Middle East, calling upon the parties in the conflict to stop violence and bring the situation in Gaza and Lebanon back to normal.
French President Jacques Chirac said the leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations supported a UN decision to send a liaison mission to the conflict zone in order to draw a clear picture of the current crisis. The French leader also said the G8 was calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
The French leader said the main goal of the mission was to determine ways to release Israeli hostages kept by Hamas and Hizbollah and normalize the situation in the region.
"The root cause of the problems in the region is the absence of a comprehensive Middle East peace," a joint statement said.
"The immediate crisis results from efforts by extremist forces to destabilize the region and to frustrate the aspirations of the Palestinian, Israeli and Lebanese people for democracy and peace," the document said. "In Gaza, elements of Hamas launched rocket attacks against Israeli territory and abducted an Israeli soldier. In Lebanon, Hizbollah, in violation of the Blue Line, attacked Israel from Lebanese territory and killed and captured Israeli soldiers, reversing the positive trends that began with the Syrian withdrawal in 2005, and undermining the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora."
Chirac also said G8 leaders reaffirmed the necessity of revitalized talks with the President of the Palestinian National Administration Mahmoud Abbas.
Chirac said G8 considered Lebanese government's loss of control over its territory unacceptable and criticized all forces that challenged the government's authority in the country as a destabilizing factor.
But the leaders also called on Israel to exercise control in their statement: "We call upon Israel to exercise utmost restraint, seeking to avoid casualties among innocent civilians and damage to civilian infrastructure and to refrain from acts that would destabilize the Lebanese government."
Following the new wave of violence in the Middle East, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that the abduction of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah Wednesday could have been designed, among other things, to frustrate dialogue within Lebanon and added he did not rule out further provocations in the conflict zone.
Israel started a military operation in Lebanon after the abduction of its soldiers, including launching air strikes Lebanon's infrastructure facilities, while also bombing the Gaza Strip.