Pressuring Hizbollah, Iran, Syria key: Bush
By Patricia WilsonSat Jul 22, 3:35 PM ET

President George W. Bush on Saturday launched a round of diplomacy on the crisis in southern Lebanon, saying the United States would urge Arab leaders to help pressure Hizbollah as well as Syria and Iran.

With U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heading to the region on Sunday, Bush telephoned Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to discuss how to help the Lebanese people caught up in the fighting between Israel and Hizbollah.

Bush, spending the weekend at his ranch in Texas, and Rice will "strategize" about a diplomatic solution with Saudi officials at the White House on Sunday afternoon.

The president also telephoned German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday.

Intense fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas has prompted growing international calls for an immediate ceasefire but U.S. officials have rejected that approach. Rice will focus instead on finding a sustainable end to violence.

"Secretary Rice will make it clear that resolving the crisis demands confronting the terrorist group that launched the attacks and the nations that support it," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

Calling Syria "a primary sponsor" of Hizbollah, Bush said Damascus had helped provide the group with shipments of Iranian-made weapons.

"Iran's regime has also repeatedly defied the international community with its ambition for nuclear weapons and aid to terrorist groups," he said. "Their actions threaten the entire Middle East and stand in the way of resolving the current crisis."

Rice will visit Israel and the Palestinian territories and join Arab officials, including some from Lebanon, at an international conference in Rome.

The so-called core group of advisors on Lebanon was organized last year for economic reconstruction. They include Russia, Italy, Britain, France, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the World Bank and the United Nations as well as the United States. More nations are likely to be added.

FOREIGN TROOP DEPLOYMENT POSSIBLE

A top U.N. official said the conference was expected to formulate plans for a ceasefire in the Middle East crisis as well as possible deployment of foreign troops.

Turkey and France could be tapped to lead such a force, U.N. sources said.

Rice said on Friday any military intervention needed "a force robust enough to do the job" and to make sure Hizbollah would not attack Israel. She said U.S. forces were unlikely to be involved.

The 11-day bombardment of Lebanon by Israel has killed more than 300 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes. More than 30 Israelis have been killed in Hizbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel.

Bush and Erdogan talked about how to help the Lebanese government with humanitarian aid and assistance, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. She did not say whether they discussed Turkey's possible role in an expanded international peace force.

In his radio address, Bush said the Lebanese people were going through a "trying time" and Hizbollah's "practice of hiding rockets in civilian neighborhoods and efforts to undermine the democratically elected government" showed it to be no friend of Lebanon.

He said the United States would join countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates that had already stepped forward to help with humanitarian needs.

Bush also stood by his assertion that Israel had the right to act in its own self defense and that Hizbollah had triggered the crisis by kidnapping two Israeli soldiers.

"I believe sovereign nations have the right to defend their people from terrorist attack and to take the necessary action to prevent those attacks," he said.

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