Israel rejected a call by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan today to lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon, saying it would only end the 7-week-old siege once all aspects of a ceasefire were in place.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also told Mr Annan he would not withdraw Israeli troops from southern Lebanon until the full implementation of the ceasefire, which took effect on August 14 and put an end to 34 days of conflict with Hizbullah.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
Mr Olmert's statements effectively amounted to a rejection of the two main requests Mr Annan had come to Jerusalem to discuss, but Mr Annan later played down the differences of opinion, saying his and Mr Olmert's thinking were not so far apart.
"There isn't that much of a difference between Prime Minister Olmert and myself," Mr Annan told a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah when asked about the apparent failure of his bid to strengthen the 2-week-old ceasefire.
Earlier, during an hour of talks with Mr Olmert, Mr Annan said he pressed for a lifting of the embargo, imposed after the start of the war against Hizbullah on July 12, on economic grounds.
Mr Olmert said any relaxation of pressure on Lebanon's ports and airspace depended on the full implementation of UN resolution 1701, which governs the ceasefire with Hizbullah.
"The (resolution) is a fixed buffet and everything will be implemented, including the lifting of the blockade, as part of the entire implementation of the different articles," he said.
Mr Olmert was equally firm when Mr Annan suggested Israel should withdraw its troops from Lebanon within "days or weeks", once up to 5,000 UN-backed peacekeepers are on the ground.
"Israel will pull out of Lebanon once the resolution is implemented," Mr Olmert said, indicating a longer timeline.
Mr Olmert also reiterated his call for the UN force to be deployed not just in southern Lebanon but along the border with Syria, a deployment that the UN resolution makes dependent on a request from the Lebanese government.
Mr Annan, in Jerusalem after visiting Lebanon, had made lifting the blockade his top priority, after describing it as a "humiliation" for Lebanon as well as an economic millstone.
The secretary-general said he hoped to double to 5,000 the number of UN troops in Lebanon soon and urged Israel and Hizbullah to end swiftly disputes blocking a lasting ceasefire.
Yesterday, Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Israel would pull out thousands of troops once a "reasonable" number of UN soldiers had been deployed, but did not give a figure.
Resolution 1701 calls for a deployment of 15,000 UN peacekeepers by Nov. 4, alongside Lebanese army forces.
The war killed nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mainly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers.