Lebanon demands Hezbollah keep peace

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora accused Israel of "crimes against humanity" during a tour of a devastated Beirut suburb on Sunday, while the Lebanese defense minister warned of harsh punishment for Hezbollah militants who violate the fragile, week-old truce that ended a month of combat.

The cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah was shaken over the weekend by an Israeli commando raid in eastern Lebanon, prompting the United Nations to intensify efforts to assemble an international peacekeeping force that would act as a buffer between the warring parties. France, which commands the existing peacekeeping force, called for a meeting of European Union countries to volunteer troops.

Negotiations with other countries hit a snag, however, when Israel announced Sunday that it would reject forces from nations with which it doesn't have diplomatic relations. That condition would rule out Malaysia, Bangladesh and Indonesia — among the few countries that have volunteered to help enforce the cease-fire along the Lebanese-Israeli border.

The U.N. cease-fire resolution does not explicitly give Israel authority to block countries from joining the peacekeeping mission, but it does say the force should "coordinate its activities ... with the government of Lebanon and government of Israel."

Until an international force is in place, the Lebanese military is standing guard in the south as part of a historic deployment to villages that had been firmly under Hezbollah's control and off-limits to the government. Lebanon's army is a weak force that's outgunned by Hezbollah and isn't authorized to search for the militant group's weapons. The eventual disarmament of Hezbollah is a condition of the U.N. resolution.

Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said the government was relying on Hezbollah to respect its end of the truce, and said anyone who violated the deal would face trial for treason.

"Any rocket that would give Israel justification [to strike Lebanon] will be treated harshly," Murr said Sunday. "It will be considered as direct collaboration with the Israeli enemy."

So far it's been Israel, not Hezbollah, accused of breaking the cease-fire resolution that introduced a tentative end to a month of Israeli air raids and Hezbollah rocket barrages. Early Saturday, helicopter-borne Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah stronghold in the Bekaa Valley, clashing with militants and villagers in gunbattles that killed one Israeli soldier.

U.N. and Lebanese officials condemned the operation as a violation of the truce, but Israeli leaders said they wouldn't hesitate to continue efforts to thwart Hezbollah from restocking its arsenal with weapons smuggled across the border from Syria.

Meir Sheetrit, Israel's housing minister, described Lebanese complaints over the raid as "ridiculous."

"They are not yet abiding by most sections of the resolution," he said. "They don't intend to disarm Hezbollah. They aren't preventing weapons from being smuggled into Lebanon. So what are we supposed to do? Sit by and twiddle our thumbs?"

Mohamed Chatah, senior adviser to the Lebanese premier, said Israel's violation of the truce lends legitimacy to Hezbollah's argument that it should be allowed to keep its weapons to protect Lebanon. He noted that Hezbollah hadn't responded to the raid and said the government would seek support from the U.N. Security Council to force Israel to refrain from such operations.

"These breaches impede the progress we want to see happen quickly to move towards a lasting solution," Chatah said. "We don't want this just to be a round. We want this to be the last one."

Saniora, the embattled Lebanese prime minister, lashed out at Israel during his first tour of Haret Hreik, one of the worst-hit areas of Beirut's southern suburbs. Israeli airstrikes flattened several blocks of the suburb, an urban Hezbollah stronghold where thousands of civilians lived and worked. Saniora, a Sunni Muslim, spoke alongside Shiite leader Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese parliament and a Hezbollah ally.

"What we see today is an image of the crimes Israel has committed ... there is no other description other than a criminal act that shows Israel's hatred to destroy Lebanon and its unity," Saniora said.

The Arab League held an emergency meeting Sunday in Cairo, where it passed a resolution that pledged money for Lebanon's reconstruction efforts to counter the Iranian cash pouring into Hezbollah's coffers.

The group announced that the United Arab Emirates had promised to fix hospitals and schools and to clear land mines, while Qatar was poised to rebuild the destroyed southern villages of Bint Jbail and Aitana. Kuwait announced it would donate $800 million, and Saudi Arabia has donated $500 million.

The Arab League also strongly condemned Israel's weekend raid.

Britain, meanwhile, said today it is investigating a report that Israeli soldiers found British-made night-vision goggles in a Hezbollah hideout.

"The Israeli Defense Forces have told us that they have found some night-vision equipment in southern Lebanon that they believe to have been manufactured in Britain," a British Foreign Office spokesman said on condition of anonymity. "We are seeking further details of the equipment to investigate whether it is British and, if so, by whom it was made and to whom it was sold."

The Times newspaper reported today that Israeli officials believe the goggles may be from a consignment sold to Iran by Britain in 2003 to bolster Iranian efforts to combat heroin smuggling across the Afghan border as part of the United Nations Drugs Control Program, the newspaper claimed. The Foreign Office spokesman said it was not yet clear if the items were part of that batch.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.