Lebanon's Lahhud Rejects Stopping Resistance Attacks

Today's Beirut Radio Lebanon said that Parliament members who visited President Emile
Lahhud have cited him as saying that he rejects the Israeli conditions for preventing acts of
resistance against the Israeli occupation army in the south and al-Biqa' al-Garbi.

     Lahoud Vows Solidarity with Syria as Israeli Warplanes Strike Lebanon

AFP, Nov. 29 -- The Lebanese President, Emile Lahoud, vowed solidarity with Syria in the
face of mounting Israeli threats to strike back after a series of deadly Hezbollah attacks in
south Lebanon.

"Israel may have decided to test the will of the new administration. We will not submit to
blackmail and the Israeli escalation does not frighten us," said Lahoud, who was sworn in as
head of state only four days ago. "Our stand with Syria is clear and unchanged. There cannot
be a just and comprehensive peace without the return of southern Lebanon and the
(occupied Syrian) Golan Heights," Lahoud said at a meeting with Members of Parliment on
Friday, Beirut newspapers reported. Lahoud also rejected renewed Israeli demands for Beirut
to provide security guarantees in return for a troop withdrawal by the Jewish state, which has
occupied southern Lebanon for 20 years despite UN resolutions calling for it to pull out.

"If Israel wants to withdraw, let it withdraw without conditions," said Lahoud, during
consultations with MPs to designate a new prime minister for his first government. Lahoud
spoke by telephone with Syrian President, Hafez Al Assad, on Friday on the tensions and
held similar talks with Rafik Hariri, current head of the caretaker government in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, several Israeli warplanes struck suspected Hezbollah strongholds just north of
the Israeli-occupied border strip in retaliation for deadly attacks on its soldiers. Security
sources in southern Lebanon said Israeli artillery also pounded villages east of the the
Lebanese port city of Tyre with more than 70 shells.

There were no reports of casualities. Israel's Defence Minister, Yitzhak Mordechai, called a
meeting of top military and intelligence aides yesterday to prepare policy recommendations
for a meeting of Israel's security cabinet on Sunday.

The United States Ambassador to Lebanon, David Sutherland, called on all sides to show
restraint as he made his first official visit to south Lebanon.

Sutherland said he hoped the "the efforts being made with the different sides will succeed in
restoring calm." Israeli military analysts say the army's tactical options on the ground are
extremely limited.

"Hezbollah has found the weak spot of the Israeli army," said public television's military
analyst, Alon Ben David. Israeli chief of staff, Shaul Mofaz, insisted that the army had
nonetheless "improved its performance by comparison with last year." In 1997, the Israeli
army sustained a record 39 soldiers dead, not counting a further 73 soldiers killed in a
nocturnal collision between two helicopters heading for south Lebanon.

"The army had strengthened Israeli garrison defences against Hezbollah mortar attack and
also improved the armour of Israeli tanks to counter anti-tank missiles," Mofaz told Israeli
television.

But in an interview with Israel radio Friday, Mofaz acknowledged that "there is no miracle
solution. The army is going to try to limit our losses, but we can't guarantee that there will be
no casualties on our side," he said. Mofaz said he still believed Israel's 850 square kilometre
"security zone" in southern Lebanon was vital to protect civilians in northern Israel. The
leader of border area mayors, Shlomo Bouhbout, demanded that he be consulted about any
change of Israeli policy in southern Lebanon.

"Our towns would be attacked with rockets which would make our life hell" if Israel withdraws,
he told Israel radio. Netanyahu still publicly insists on guarantees for the security of both
Israel and its SLA allies as a condition for any withdrawal.

But Israeli newspapers reported Netanyahu saying privately that he was now willing to
consider a proposal from his powerful hardline foreign minister, Ariel Sharon, for a phased
unilateral pullout coupled with a warning that Israel will retaliate harshly for any subsequent
cross-border attacks.

But Lebanese Foreign Minister Fares Bweiz said yesterday that Lebanon continued to reject
Netanyahu's demands. "Demanding guarantees aims at pushing Lebanon away from
resolution 425 and entering negotiations to abolish it," said Bweiz, refering to the 1978 UN
Security Council resolution stipulating an immediate Israeli pullout.