Israel miscalculated greatly and failed: officials
Lebanon-Israel-UK, Politics, 7/29/2006

Publicity of Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah and his ability to forge unity among different religions in Lebanon have led to the failure of the Israeli regime in achieving its "illegitimate aims," said a parliamentarian.

This comes as reports indicate that at least 600 Lebanese, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israel, and 800,000 displaced, with massive destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure.

Iranian Abdolreza Torabi added that Hizbullah has maintained its morale and consolidation despite the support of western powers for Israel.

"The United States is seeking to safeguard its interests in the Middle East while it isn't aware of the international and regional hatred towards itself," Torabi said.

Another lawmaker, Hadi Doust-Mohammadi, said the Israeli regime has lost its face by bombing residential areas of Lebanon and Palestine.

"They (the Israelis) know that they have been defeated by Hizbullah and the resistance movements in Lebanon and Palestine.

That's why they have resorted to killing civilians," he said.

Doust-Mohammadi described the Israeli regime as "the executor" of the vicious plans of the United States in the Middle East because it is the center of the world's energy and the presence of informed and militant people with Islamic tendencies is a major obstacle to US aims in the region.

Iranian MP Jahanbakhsh Amini said "The two powers strived to spread the war into southern Lebanon and outside the occupying regime's borders and even into border of other states to divert world attention from their crimes in Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Israel, backed by the United States and Britain in military, economic and political terms, has been attacking Lebanon for more than two weeks.

Paddy Ashdown, who is also a peer in Britain's House of Lords, today, urged the European Union to lead the way in the search for peace in the Middle East by bringing Iran and Syria into the talks.

"There is only one solution to this crisis, and it is the same solution we have to find in Iraq: to go for a wider Middle East settlement and to do it urgently," said Ashdown, who is also a peer in Britain's House of Lords.

He said the US cannot do this, but Europe can by talking to Iran and Syria and would also mean finding a solution for Palestine, which was "the burning coal that lies at the heart of the fire." "The world is right to get nervous when the US is frustrated and Israel faces defeat. The EU needs to go its own way," said the former envoy who stepped down from his post in implementing the Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia in January.

"It is not Hizbullah's position that is weakening now. It is Israel's. Its stated war aim was to destroy Hizbullah. It is not clear why, having failed to do this by occupying Lebanon, it thought it could achieve it by bombing," he warned.

Reviewing the current crisis in an article for the Guardian newspaper, Ashdown warned that "miscalculations of even greater magnitude become even more possible" by misguided policies.

"Alongside Israel's failure sits the failure of what I suspect was the strategy of Blair and perhaps Bush. The most positive construction that can be put on this is that they hoped Israel would weaken first Hizbullah and then Iran and Syria," he said.

But "Israel's failure so far to achieve its war aims means that this strategy too is in danger of being frustrated," said the former envoy, who previously lead Britain's Liberal Democrats.

He believed that the time was right for Europe to lead a way out of the impasse even though it would be probably unwelcome in Washington.

"I don't want to believe that America's strategy is to widen the war. But, just in case, Europe's strategy now should be to widen the peace," Ashdown said.

Previous Stories:
  Resistance kills 8 Israeli invading soldiers, wounds 20   (7/26/2006)
  US opposed to halt of Lebanon's bombing   (7/26/2006)
  US opposed to halt of Lebanon's bombing   (7/26/2006)
  UK airport flies US bombs to Israel - Daily Telegraph   (7/26/2006)
  UK airport flies US bombs to Israel - Daily Telegraph   (7/26/2006)
  800,000 Lebanese civilians displaced by Israel's aggression   (7/26/2006)
  Israel deliberately bombs UN peacekeepers in Lebanon   (7/26/2006)
  Israeli atrocities in Lebanon & Palestine barbaric: Iran officials   (7/26/2006)
  UK reverses stance, follows US in calling for ceasefire in Lebanon   (7/24/2006)
  Lebanon invasion overshadows Iraqi-UK PMs briefing   (7/24/2006)

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