The United Nations has called for an immediate three-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to allow aid to enter south Lebanon, and for the scores of casualties to be evacuated for treatment.
UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland has come out on Friday saying children, elderly and disabled had been left completely isolated by the two weeks of fighting.Friday also saw Prime Minister Tony Blair fly out to Washington DC to meet US President George Bush. It was expected by many to be an opportunity for Blair to urge the US premier to call for and immediate truce. However, once again any such announcement being made was dismissed by Bush, arguing instead for an international force to be deployed in Lebanon.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will return to the Middle East on Saturday.
Bush said she would “work with the leaders of Israel and Lebanon to seize this opportunity to achieve lasting peace and stability for both of their countries.”
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, said world leaders would discuss the deployment of a “stabilisation force” in Lebanon at a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan told that countries in a position to contribute troops to an international force would also be in attendance at Monday's meeting.
“Obviously it will be preliminary discussions because we do not have the mandate of the Security Council yet,” Annan said.The UN Security Council is also due to discuss the issue later next week. While briefing the Security Council on Friday, Egeland said some 600 people had been killed by Israeli action in Lebanon, of which around a third were children.
Egeland said, “It's been horrific... There is something fundamentally wrong with the war, where there are more dead children than armed men.”
He said he would ask “for at least a 72-hour start of this cessation of hostilities so that we can evacuate the wounded, children, the elderly, the disabled from the crossfire in southern Lebanon.”
