U.S. at Odds With Allies on Mideast Conflict

[cal04]

The United States faces growing tensions with allies over its support of Israel's military campaign to cripple Hezbollah, amid calls for a cease-fire to help with the mounting humanitarian crisis.

European allies are particularly alarmed about the disproportionately high civilian death toll in Lebanon. They are also concerned that the U.S. position will increase tensions between the Islamic world and the West by fueling militants, playing into the rhetoric of Osama bin Laden and adding to the problems of the U.S.-led coalition force in Iraq.

"What there needs to be now is a cessation of hostilities," U.N. Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown told reporters yesterday. "The Middle East is littered with the results of people believing there are military solutions to political problems in the region." He said civilians are "very unfairly bearing the greatest brunt of the conflict."


The fragile Lebanese government has pleaded for a cease-fire, and France has urged the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for an end to hostilities, proposing political and security measures. France also has called for "humanitarian corridors" to guarantee safety for civilians fleeing areas under fire.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/19/AR2006071901932.html

[tuvor]

1. Not with the Canadian government, though.

Harper doesn't think the Israeli reaction to the kidnappings/abductions/whatever has been over-reaching at all, even if it meant the lives of eight of his countrymen.

[PDJane]

2. Tony Snow

told Helen Thomas today that there was no cease-fire resolutions in front of the UN and thanked her for giving the Hizbollah point of view.

If this is supposed to be clever, it strikes me as rude and not-quite-true.