WASHINGTON – Standing side by side, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday laid down the law for Hezbollah and demanded the terror group lay down its arms.
The allies – who stopped short of calling for an immediate cease fire – said they hoped to quickly put together a multinational peacekeeping force to help Lebanese troops gain control of the county’s southern region, which would require that Hezbollah must give up its weapons.
“Hezbollah is not a state. They’re a supposed political party – that happens to be armed. Now what kind of a state [Lebanon] is it that has got a political party that has got a militia? It’s a state that needs to be helped,” Bush said.
Blair said: “This can only work if Hezbollah are prepared to allow it to work.”
And he warned that if Hezbollah balks “they will also, again, face the fact that action will have to be taken against them.”
Bush said he’s sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice back to the region today to negotiate terms for a U.N. resolution that could be introduced next week to end the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
“This is a moment of intense conflict in the Middle East. Yet our aim is to turn it into a moment of opportunity and a chance for broader change in the region,” Bush said. “My attitude is that now is the time to be firm.”
Bush and Blair stressed that the U.N. resolution could be introduced next week but offered no specific timetable for when the multinational force could go into the border area except “as soon as possible.”
Bush said Rice’s instructions “are to work with Israel and Lebanon to come up with an acceptable U.N. Security Council resolution” – not to negotiate with Syria or Hezbollah.
There was speculation that Blair might break with Bush and call for an immediate cease-fire, but that didn’t happen – the two spoke in virtually identical terms.
“Nothing will work unless, as well as an end to the immediate crisis, we put in place the measures necessary to prevent it occurring again,” Blair said.
The president also put strong stress on the role of Iran and Syria in sponsoring and arming Hezbollah.
“The root cause of the problem is you’ve got Hezbollah that is armed and willing to fire rockets into Israel – a Hezbollah, by the way, that I firmly believe is backed by Iran and encouraged by Iran,” Bush said.
In Beirut, Hezbollah politicians early today signed on to a proposed peace package that includes strengthening an international force in south Lebanon and disarming the guerrillas.
The agreement, reached at a Cabinet meeting, was the first time that Hezbollah has agreed to a proposal for ending the crisis that includes the deploying of international forces.
The package, however, falls short of American and Israeli demands in that it calls for an immediate cease-fire before working out details of a force and includes other conditions.
Bush’s tough talk about Iran came amid a new push at the United Nations for a resolution warning Iran to give up all nuclear weapons ambitions.
Blair joined Bush in putting the blame squarely on Hezbollah.
“We shouldn’t forget how this began, how it started. In defiance of the U.N. Resolution 1559, Hezbollah, for almost two years, has been fortifying and arming militia down in the south of Lebanon,” Blair said.
Bush declined to say which countries might provide troops for the multinational force. U.S. officials say they won’t be Americans, who would be an obvious target for Hezbollah.
Israel has ruled out another U.N.-led force, noting that U.N. troops stationed in the border region utterly failed in their task of disarming Hezbollah.
Blair also suggested the West must be more aggressive in defending Western values and rejecting claims that they are anti-Islam.
“One of the things we’ve got to stop doing is stop apologizing for our own positions,” he said. “Muslims in America, as far as I’m aware of, are free to worship. Muslims in Britain are free to worship.”
STEPS TO A TRUCE
* Condoleezza Rice goes back to the region tomorrow to work on U.N. Security Council resolution.
* Resolution gets introduced in U.N. next week.
* Hezbollah must return kidnapped soldiers and stop rocket fire.
* Israel must suspend military operations.
* Cease-fire to be declared.
* Multinational force to move into southern Lebanon and help Lebanese government troops re-establish control over their own territory.
* Speed humanitarian aid and help displaced people return home.