CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters):
UNITED STATES President George W. Bush yesterday launched a round of diplomacy on the crisis in southern Lebanon, saying the United States would urge Arab leaders to help pressure Hezbollah as well as Syria and Iran.
With U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heading to the region today, Bush telephoned Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey to discuss how to help the Lebanese people caught up in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Bush, spending the weekend at his ranch in Texas, and Rice will "strategise" about a diplomatic solution with Saudi officials at the White House this 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 cease-fire, 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 organised 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.
