Global Policy Forum

By Evelyn Leopold

The United States has resisted international pressure to support U.N. calls to end or at least suspend the fighting in the Middle East to stop the casualties, send in aid and allow negotiations. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered a series of proposals to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday but the United States, which is key to any plan, rejected a cease-fire even before the U.N. leader met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a private dinner in New York.

Rice will be briefed on Friday by a three-man mission Annan sent to the Middle East and on which he based his ideas for an end to fighting and a peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. She is expected to travel to the region in the near future. No plan has been accepted by any of parties or formulated in detail, prompting Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns to tell CNN. "We've got to develop a concept that can actually work on the ground."

The United States is staunchly backing Israel, which believes it can neutralize Lebanon's Hizbollah militia militarily. Hizbollah last week captured two Israeli soldiers, triggering an an intense military response by Israel, followed by Hizbollah missiles raining on northern Israel. After Annan's speech, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters, "It is just not appropriate to talk about a cease-fire as if that is the alpha and the omega of the situation" without a comprehensive solution.

Said Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman: "When you operate on a cancerous growth you do not stop in the middle, sew the patient up and tell him to keep living with that growth until it kills you. You make sure it is totally removed."

Annan acknowledged that the fighting would not stop soon and said it was imperative to spare civilian lives and to at least "establish safe corridors" for relief workers. French President Jacques Chirac has made a similar appeal. In his address to the Security Council, Annan called for an "expanded peacekeeping force" in southern Lebanon so Beirut's army could control territory on the Israeli border. He gave no details but some diplomats speculated that only France, which has a strong army, good ties with Arab states and a history of opposition to Hizbollah, could send troops.

Annan said the abducted Israel soldiers should be transferred to the Lebanese government by the International Committee of the Red Cross before returning home. And he proposed an international conference to set Lebanon's borders and to dismantle Hizbollah. He blamed both Hizbollah and Israel for the tragedy that has cost more than 300 Lebanese lives and wounded 600. Some 29 Israelis have died and 200 are wounded.

Hizbollah, Annan said, defended neither Palestinian nor Lebanese interests but held "an entire nation hostage." He demanded Israel stop an "excessive use of force," that weakened the Lebanese government and only increased popular support for Hizbollah.

A missing link in the flurry of diplomacy is Syria, where the U.N. mission is not welcome because of the presence of Norwegian diplomat Terje Roed-Larsen, considered too friendly to Israel. Yet, without Syria, which supports Hizbollah and is at loggerheads with the United States, any settlement would be fleeting. On Friday, the council is conducting an open debate on the crisis before trying to agree on a response to Annan.