Beirut (AsiaNews) – The Lebanese government took a significant step ahead yesterday evening, overcoming resistance of the political representatives of Hezbollah to approve a peace plan of the Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora. Among other stipulations, the plan includes "strengthening the United Nations international forces operational in southern Lebanon". The Council of Ministers also decided to send to the Speaker of Parliament, the Shiite, Nabih Berri, to Rome as its delegate in diplomatic contacts with the West. Berri had been indicated by Hezbollah as a mediator in talks with the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.

The first, indirect contacts between Israel and Hezbollah, through Germany and the Red Cross, were noted by the pan-Arab daily, al-Hayat. Lebanese sources said the contacts between Israel and Hezbollah were in their initial phases. Indirectly carried out, they are not expected to have touched upon concrete issues regarding an accord, but just to have examined general basic principles for later agreement.

Today, Lebanese television reported that the Syrians are digging trenches on the borders with Israel and southern Lebanon and they also covered the intervention of the pope's "foreign affairs minister", Mgr Giovanni Lajolo, seen as a criticism against the US. The phrase of Mgr Lajolo, "Lebanon, garden of the Middle East" was repeated by nearly all the communications media and was also cited by many Lebanese leaders, who affirmed the importance of the role of the Holy See and of Pope Benedict XVI. The LBCI, the most popular television channel in Lebanon, commented about the statement of the Holy See as a criticism against the US policy in Lebanon and the region.

The new message of Al Qaeda by the number two of the terrorist network was also given coverage. The Egyptian Ayman al Zawahiri said his group "would not stand by idly while shells burn our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon". Al Zawahiri said "all the world is a battlefield open in front of us" and "the war with Israel does not stop with ceasefires": "We must obtain the liberation of all Palestine and all Islamic lands from Andalusia to Iraq."

More than six hours of negotiations were needed yesterday for the government's approval of Siniora's peace plan, rejected on Wednesday by the head of the Hezbollah MPs, Mohammad Raad. Eventually the plan triumphed over the resistance of the two ministers of the Party of God and the President of the Republic, Emile Lahoud. Before the government meeting, Lahoud launched a scathing attack on the American administration that could "kill us but not trample us underfoot" and against the world's silence in the face of the massacres perpetrated by the State of Israel. Lahoud described the meeting in Rome as a failure planned by the United States and Israel in that it did not manage to impose a ceasefire. It took a threat from Siniora to break the stalemate, that he would interrupt negotiations for a ceasefire if he did not get approval for his peace plan from Hezbollah. The presence of UN international troops in south Lebanon was the sticking point: Siniora wants them as buffer forces and thus reinforced "in numbers, equipment, mandate and operation zones" while the Party of God and Lahoud want the forces on a mere "observer" basis.

The Council of Ministers rejected the evaluation of the Rome conference as a "checkmate" because it did not attain a ceasefire, maintaining instead that it was "an occasion" for Lebanon. The importance of not returning to the situation as it was before 12 July was also emphasized, of not exposing the country to danger once again.  

Yesterday evening, the Maronite archbishop of Tyre, Mgr Nabil El Hajj, contacted by phone by AsiaNews, launched an appeal for the liberation of the citizens of Ain Ebel, Debel and Kozah, Christian cities "where everything is lacking". He criticized the Red Cross, which freed the foreigners in these three villages without giving a thought to the local people. He urged the Maronite patriarch, the Holy See and all leaders to take action to free 25,000 people who are currently living without water, food and milk for newborn babies. "For the love of God, help us," added Mgr Hajj.