MIDDLE EAST: Kofi Annan came away empty-handed from his meeting yesterday with Ehud Olmert, after the Israeli prime minister refused to accede to the UN secretary general's demands that Israel immediately lift its air and sea blockade of Lebanon and withdraw all its forces from south Lebanon once 5,000 international peacekeeping troops are deployed in the area.
The main sticking point in the meeting yesterday morning in Jerusalem between the two men was the deployment of international troops on the Lebanon-Syria border, to ensure that arms are not transferred from Damascus to Hizbullah. Mr Olmert has insisted that the blockade will not be lifted until international forces - not just Lebanese troops - are stationed on the Lebanese border with Syria to ensure an arms embargo on Hizbullah, as stipulated in the UN ceasefire resolution, is implemented.
Lebanon, however, has said it will deploy its troops along the border with Syria but will not allow international troops to be stationed there, while Damascus has said it would view the deployment of an international force on its border with Lebanon as a hostile act.
Mr Annan, clearly leaning towards the Lebanese position, told Mr Olmert that Beirut was serious about implementing the arms embargo. "We need to be flexible, because I don't think there's ever only one way of solving a problem," he said. "We shouldn't insist that the only way to do it is by deploying international forces."
While the UN chief tried yesterday to convince Mr Olmert to withdraw all Israeli forces once 5,000 foreign peacekeepers had been deployed in south Lebanon, the Israeli leader was adamant that troops would not be withdrawn until the full implementation of UN Resolution 1701, which calls for the stationing of 15,000 foreign troops in the area.
Mr Annan suggested Israel should withdraw within "days or weeks", but Mr Olmert said troops would be withdrawn "once the [ UN] resolution is implemented" and that the same condition applied to the lifting of the blockade. "As the secretary general said, Resolution 1701 is a 'set menu and not an open buffet' where everyone chooses what they want."
Mr Annan said that lifting the blockade would help strengthen the democratically elected government in Lebanon.
Mr Olmert said he believed the ceasefire between Israel and Hizbullah could be "a cornerstone to build a new reality between Israel and Lebanon".
But Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora said Lebanon would be the last country to sign a peace deal with Israel. "Let it be clear, we are not seeking any agreement until there is a just and comprehensive peace based on the Arab initiative," he said, referring to a plan that emerged from the Arab League summit in Beirut in 2002. It calls for the creation of a Palestinian state along 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital, in exchange for full normalisation of relations between Israel and the Arab states.
Mr Annan also called on Israel to end its closure of the Gaza Strip and to halt the fighting that has claimed the lives of more than 200 Palestinians in the past two months. In attacks yesterday Israeli troops killed eight Palestinians in air strikes and gun battles around the Shijaiyeh neighbourhood of Gaza City. One of the dead was a 14-year-old boy who was in a crowd watching the fighting.
Yesterday UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland accused Israel of "shocking" and "completely immoral" behaviour for dropping large numbers of cluster bombs in Lebanon when a ceasefire was in sight. Mr Egeland said Israel had either made a "terribly wrong decision" or had "started thinking afterwards".