Dichter: Israel may have to consider prisoner swap
Olmert: Too soon to speak of international force in Lebanon
By Aluf Benn and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies
On a surprise visit to the besieged city of Haifa, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that military operations in Lebanon will continue "until it is certain that there is no threat of fire against Israel."
The prime minister said that Jerusalem is not ruling out negotiating an end to the crisis provided that the terms of any future deal would rest on the basis of the recent declaration by the Group of Eight industrialized nations, "meaning, the immediate unconditional release of the kidnapped soldiers and the implementation of UN Resolution 1559."
Olmert expressed reservations over a proposal to station a special international force in Lebanon.
Advertisement
"It's a good headline, but our experience shows that nothing stands behind it," the prime minister said. "Today, too, there is an international force in Lebanon and we see what they're doing. I want to be cautious on this subject, and it seems to me that it is premature to discuss it."
"Nobody in the international community is asking us to stop the operation before the implementation of the G8 declaration," Olmert said. "In order to implement it, perhaps we will need to conduct diplomatic negotiations, not with Hezbollah. In any event, the start of talks will not halt the operation... rather the return of the abducted soldiers only [will stop it]."
The prime minister assigned blame to Iran for the Hezbollah raid on the northern border, which ignited the current crisis last Wednesday. The operation's timing "was not coincidental and was coordinated with Iran with the aim of deflecting international attention away from the Iranian [nuclear] issue," Olmert said.
"Iran's trick worked, unfortunately," the prime minister said. "Everyone remembers the G8 declaration on the Lebanon issue, and is not dealing with the Iranian matter."
Olmert told a special United Nations delegation Tuesday that Israel will continue its military campaign until it wins the release of two kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldiers and security to residents of the north is restored.
The meeting took place despite Olmert's earlier vows to refuse to meet with the team dispatched by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The prime minister greeted the delegation while it was in the middle of talks with Olmert's top aide, Yoram Turbovicz.
The members of the delegation, headed by special envoy Vijay Nambiar, arrived in Israel from Lebanon.
Olmert emphasized that Israel demands full implementation of the terms laid down by the leaders of Group of Eight industrialized nations: the unconditional release of the abducted soldiers, and full implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1559, which includes the deployment of Lebanese troops along the Lebanese-Israeli border and disarming Hezbollah.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni hinted Tuesday that Israel would not object to a temporary international force in south Lebanon, despite earlier an outright Israeli rejection of such a plan.
Speaking after meeting with the delegation, Livni said that while Israel would prefer the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south of the country, "we will consider other solutions put forward."
"If there is a need to strengthen the Lebanese army somehow, so that the military in south Lebanon is effective, and prevents Hezbollah from returning, we will consider ways to do achieve this," Livni said.
She stressed, however, that any solution would have to take into consideration Israel's ability to respond to any incidents in the future.
During the meeting with the UN delegates Tuesday, Livni stressed that the current UNIFIL force "is ineffective and irrelevant." The UN envoys put forward to Livni a package aimed at ending the fighting, based on an outline drawn up by the G8 leaders during their meeting in Russia on Monday.
The Israeli and UN teams disagreed over the order in which the steps should be implemented. According to the plan, the three soldiers abducted by Hezbollah and Hamas would be freed, rocket fire on Israel would end, Israel would halt its Air Force strikes on Lebanon and withdraw its troops from Gaza and the Hamas lawmakers.
Israel is demanding that the three soldiers be returned first, before the attacks on Lebanon stop.
Livni also indicated that Israel could agree to put off the disarmament of Hezbollah, provided that Lebanon immediately deploy its own troops along the border.
"We are beginning a diplomatic process alongside the military operation that will continue," Livni said after meeting with the UN delegation.
"The diplomatic process is not meant to shorten the window of time of the army's operation but rather is meant to be an extension of it and to prevent a need for future military operations."
Meanwhile, Annan said Tuesday that he expected European troops to join a proposed stabilization force in Lebanon.
Indonesia said Tuesday it is prepared to send some 450 troops for a possible UN-led peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.
The country's president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made the offer after meeting Middle Eastern ambassadors to Indonesia.
Yudhoyono said a UN-led force should be dispatched to Lebanon to stop the fighting.
"Indonesia is ready to send about one battalion to held keep peace there," Yudhoyono told reporters.
Dichter: Israel may have to consider prisoner swap Also Tuesday, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said that Israel may have to consider the possibility of negotiating over Lebanese prisoners to end the current crisis sparked by Hezbollah's abduction of two Israel Defense Forces soldiers last week.
There was no indication whether the former head of the Shin Bet security service was speaking on behalf of the government or giving his personal opinion.
"I think at the end we will bring the soldiers home and if one of the ways must be through a negotiation about Lebanese prisoners, I think the day will arrive when we must consider [this] as well," Dichter told Army Radio.
New security arrangements put into place close to the border - like the "security zone" mentioned Monday by Defense Minister Amir Peretz during a tour of bomb shelters in Nahariya would not be sufficient as they would not be able to prevent Hezbollah from deploying long-range rockets and missiles further north in Lebanon.
Israel's principal concern is that after the fighting, Hezbollah will take advantage of the cease-fire to restore its military capabilities - to purchase rockets and other arms, to retrain its forces and renew its threat to the Israeli home front.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces deputy chief of staff said Tuesday that the army could not rule out a massive ground invasion of Lebanon as part of an offensive to force Hezbollah guerrillas to free the soldiers and stop firing rockets into Israel.
Northern Israel has been pounded by Hezbollah rockets daily since the start of the IDF offensive last week. More than a dozen Israelis have been killed in the rocket strikes and hundreds of others wounded.
"The army has many possibilities for action," IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Kaplinski told Israel Radio, when asked if the military would rule out a massive land incursion.
"At this stage we do not think we have to activate massive ground forces into Lebanon but if we have to do this, we will. We are not ruling it out."
Peretz on Monday approved a plan to call up a limited number of IDF reservists, in the wake of the escalating offensive on Lebanon.
Three reservist units will take positions in Gaza and the West Bank as the units regularly serving there move to the north.
Israeli officials are at odds, meanwhile, with regard to who will oversee the implementation of the disarmament arrangements - the Lebanese Army, United Nations observers or a strong international force.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan spoke Monday of sending an international force to Lebanon to put an end to the Hezbollah rocket fire and the Israeli assaults, while the U.S. ambassador to the UN spoke of the need "to send a force to deal with Hezbollah."
In the wake of these suggestions, there was a certain softening in the Israeli position, which had insisted on relying on the Lebanese army only. "Our position has yet to be finalized," a political source in Jerusalem said on Monday.
The working assumption in Jerusalem is that the Lebanese army is strong enough to enforce the security arrangements, whereas a UN force along the lines of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) would be of little value.
With regard to the deployment of a strong international force, such a move would pose a dilemma to Jerusalem, with soldiers of friendly countries risking their lives for Israel.
One option currently under review in Jerusalem concerns working toward a new UN Security Council resolution that would update previous resolutions vis-a-vis Lebanon and reinforce the disarmament and supervision arrangements.
In two weeks, the UN will hold its biannual discussion on extending UNIFIL's mandate in southern Lebanon; Israel is expected to demand that the terms of the mandate be adapted in keeping with the current circumstances.
Meanwhile, a UN delegation seeking to resolve the crisis arrived in Jerusalem on Monday, and will meet Tuesday with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's chief of staff, Yoram Turbowicz.
The two Israeli officials are expected to listen and reiterate the positions expressed by Olmert in his address to the Knesset on Monday - the unconditional release of the abducted soldiers, a complete cease-fire, the deployment of the Lebanese Army throughout southern Lebanon, the removal of Hezbollah from the area and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559.
Kaplinski said Monday that the IDF's offensive would continue at least another week. "We will continue to operate to shorten the breath of this organization," he said.
He said the IDF has continued to alert civilians in targeted neighborhoods in southern Lebanon before striking, and reiterated that the IDF was targeting militants, not civilians.
"We are strict about cautioning Lebanese civilians before our attacks," he said
