Lahoud: Israeli offensive won't achieve its goals

Israel will not be able to disarm Hezbollah by broadening its military offensive and instead must stop shooting and start talking, President Emile Lahoud said today.

“Whatever it (Israel) does it’s not going to reach its goal,” the Lebanese leader said. “They’re not going to be able to take out the weaponry of Hezbollah. So all they’re doing is massive destruction.”

Lahoud, a staunch supporter of Hezbollah and close ally of Syria, also called on the United States to help end the destruction and push for a ceasefire.

“We hope that the US administration will be even-handed with everybody and stop this war of mass destruction against Lebanon,” the president said.

“What is happening is a real massacre … Imagine one rocket, three tonnes, falling on civilian suburban place or a building which is only occupied by civilians.”

Yesterday, a high-level Middle East conference in Rome ended in disagreement, with most European leaders urging an immediate ceasefire, but the US willing to give Israel more time to punish the guerrilla group.

Israel waged airstrikes and bombarded Lebanon from the sea since the July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah gunmen in a cross-border raid.

But the campaign has failed to force a surrender of the guerrillas, who have inflicted heavy casualties on the Israelis in ground combat this week.

Speaking in his office at the presidential palace in hilly Baabda overlooking south Beirut, a district that has taken the brunt of the bombardment, Lahoud said international pressure was building on Washington to push for a ceasefire.

He said a halt in fighting was urgent and that once the shooting stops “everything will be discussed later”.

Trying to impose conditions before the fighting ends “is a waste of time”, he said, adding that the fighting only makes the resistance stauncher.

“You cannot by force dictate things on Lebanon. It will not work,” he said.

“On the contrary, they (Israelis) are making them (guerrillas) more desperate.

"We’re going to reach the point of no return and it will happen very soon … when it is attacked in such a way and it becomes desperate and they don’t care about their lives anymore you can’t talk to them anymore so you reach a point of no return.”

Israel’s offensive has killed over 400 people in Lebanon and wrought massive destruction. Roads, bridges, the airport, army bases have been targeted in addition to Hezbollah strongholds and related institutions.

Entire residential areas in south Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, have been hit and many houses in south Lebanon villages have been destroyed.

Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets on northern Israel. More than 50 Israelis have been killed in the fighting.

Israel, which first refused to negotiate a trade of the captured soldiers, wants to ensure guerrilla weapons are no longer near its border and has won support from its ally America, which has refused to push for a ceasefire before Hezbollah is reined in.

“Force can’t solve anything,” Lahoud said. “On the contrary, violence will bring more violence. There will be a cycle of violence in the whole Middle East.”

The president said Israel had more sinister plans that just disarming Hezbollah and protecting its northern border. That includes causing divisions and making Lebanon pay for forcing Israel to remove its troops from Lebanon in 2000 after incessant Hezbollah attacks.

In addition, he said, Israel is using the Lebanon offensive “to give a lesson to the whole Arab world that whoever faces Israel will lose”.

“They’ve been waiting for that (offensive) for a long time,” the president said of the Israelis. “Israel wants to subdue Lebanon…Well, they’re not going to subdue us. Be sure.”

Lahoud, a former army commander, is a staunch supporter of Hezbollah and is a close ally of Syria.

However, he’s locked in a power struggle with the Western-backed prime minister, Fuad Saniora, and the anti-Syrian, pro-American parliamentary majority.

Lahoud said Washington, which supplies Israel’s weapons, should take a different approach to the crisis.

“Unfortunately, the US has always been biased toward Israel and all it cares about, especially this US administration, is the welfare of Israel. It never thought about the welfare of Lebanon,” Lahoud said.