Report: Netanyahu studies Sharon's plan to strike Lebanon

The Israeli daily Maariv reported on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will decide within the coming days whether he will act in accordance with a plan set out by Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon on Lebanon. The plan was reviewed by the mini Israeli Cabinet for military and security affairs, said Israel Radio.

The radio said, quoting the paper, that the plan mainly speaks of a large-scale land, air and sea operation to be carried out by the Israeli Army in south Lebanon. The radio report added that the operation aims at drawing news basics and laws in the region.

According to the plan, the Israeli Army will repel "by an iron fist" any attack against its forces, and later on the Israeli Army would withdraw from the security sector in south Lebanon.

The paper added that Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens also had a plan, but a different one. Arens supports the idea that the Israeli Army should launch a continued operation in south Lebanon conducive to weakening the Hizbullah Party as well as to pressure the Lebanese government. He takes no consideration for the nearby elections in Israel.

Meanwhile, Israeli Minister of Internal Security Avigdor Kahalani said Israel has to force the Lebanese government to deploy its forces in the south or to reach an agreement that provides for deploying multinational forces in south Lebanon, saying, "If Lebanon will not agree on this matter, we will stay in Lebanon for long years."

In a statement he made to Israeli Radio on Monday, Kahalani stressed that there can be no link between the Lebanese file and negotiations with Syria, adding that reaching a solution with Syria will take long years and that in Lebanon, Israel should find a more rapid solution, because the Golan Heights constitutes the preventive fence for Syria.