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SUMMIT-VATICAN Jul-27-2006 (810 words) With photos posted July 26 and 27. xxxi
Vatican disappointed summit didn't call for immediate cease-fire
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican shares the disappointment of those who had hoped the Rome summit on the Middle East would lead to an immediate cease-fire in the conflict along the Israeli-Lebanese border, Vatican officials said.
The conclusion -- supported by the United States -- that a cease-fire should be called only once there are guarantees it will not be broken "only appears realistic," said Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, Vatican foreign minister and an observer at the July 26 conference.
"Such conditions can and must be created with means that do not include the killing of innocent people," the archbishop said in a July 27 interview with Vatican Radio.
"An immediate suspension of hostilities is possible. In fact, it is obligatory," he said.
Participating foreign ministers, led by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, issued a statement at the end of the meeting pledging "to work in partnership with the international community to provide immediate humanitarian relief to the people of Lebanon, expressing deep concern for civilian casualties and suffering, the destruction of civil infrastructure and the rising number of internally displaced people."
While calling on Israel "to exercise its utmost restraint," they said a basic condition for peace in the region was ensuring Lebanon's ability "to exercise its authority over all its territory," including the southern regions of the country, which are strongholds of the Hezbollah guerrillas.
The participants "expressed their determination to work immediately to reach with the utmost urgency a cease-fire," the statement said.
However, it added, "that cease-fire must be lasting, permanent and sustainable," which appears possible only if the Hezbollah militants are disarmed.
The participating countries agreed that an international force operating under U.N. auspices should be deployed along the border, and they promised to convene a donor conference to help finance the reconstruction of Lebanon's infrastructure.
In the Vatican Radio interview Archbishop Lajolo said, "It certainly was positive that on the initiative of the Italian government it (the summit) was convoked so quickly and that it focused its attention on the most urgent themes."
While saying he understood people's disappointment in the summit results, he also said diplomats knew going into the conference that its impact would be limited.
At the same time, he said, there were several positive notes, including the fact that so many countries, "from Canada to Russia, gathered in the awareness of the seriousness of what is happening in Lebanon, reaffirming the need for it to recover its full sovereignty and committing themselves to providing assistance."
Archbishop Lajolo said the conference's support for a U.N. force to assist the Lebanese army with security was important, as was the commitment to providing immediate humanitarian assistance and aid for reconstruction.
The 18 participating governments and organizations could not agree unanimously on an immediate cease-fire "because some countries believed the appeal would not have had the desired effect, but felt it was more realistic" to promise to work toward conditions that would allow a cease-fire to hold, he said.
"It was also problematic that the conference limited itself to asking Israel to exercise maximum moderation; such a request, by its nature, is inevitably ambiguous while concern for the innocent civilian population is a precise and unbreakable obligation," the archbishop said.
Archbishop Lajolo said the Vatican's position is that there must be an immediate end to the hostilities and that the multiple and complex problems in the region must be faced one at a time.
Pope Benedict, he said, is following the situation closely and praying constantly.
"The pope cries with every mother mourning her children, with every person weeping for their loved ones," Archbishop Lajolo told the radio.
Archbishop Lajolo and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, met after the July 26 conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who had appealed to the conference for an immediate cease-fire.
In a July 27 interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Cardinal Sodano said, "Certainly many people will be disappointed (with the conference) because it did not reach a commitment for an immediate cease-fire."
Like them, he said, the Vatican also had "a great expectation" for the summit.
The cardinal, however, praised the leaders for their commitment to humanitarian aid, saying, "The situation in Lebanon is getting more dramatic by the hour."
Cardinal Sodano also said he hoped the international community would take seriously its commitment to bringing about a cease-fire.
More than 400 people -- mostly civilians -- have been killed in Lebanon since Hezbollah-Israeli hostilities began July 12. At least 50 Israelis, including 32 soldiers, have been killed, and 12 U.N. personnel have been killed.
Separate Israeli raids into the Gaza Strip began in late June, and more than 142 Palestinians have been killed in that conflict.
Both Israeli offensives were triggered by militant forces' kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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