|PIC1|Three weeks ago, members of Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, triggering a major air and ground assault on Lebanon by Israeli forces.

Israel has this week rejected calls for a truce as its forces sweep even further into Lebanon.

The international community, meanwhile, continues to disagree over the urgency of a ceasefire.

Christian Today spoke to Canon Andrew White, Anglican Vicar of Baghdad and head of the Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East, on the growing crisis in the Middle East.



CT: The situation in Lebanon is nothing short of a mess. With both sides breaking truce agreements and Israel now making moves to expand its ground offensive, how do you even begin to talk about reconciliation in this kind of climate?

|TOP|AW: Well, the fact is you have to continue working for peace; you can’t necessarily talk about reconciliation. And a lot of endeavours that we were working at we’ve had to temporarily put on hold because there is no way you can continue as if nothing has happened when the whole face of the region has changed. So what you’ve go to do is you’ve got to continue working towards the process of peacemaking and meet the needs of the people.

A lot of our work right now is humanitarian work, actual working at trying to get people food and medicine and the amount of work we can do at reconciliation is greatly diminished.

CT: So your focus has had to shift?

AW: Well we have always had a humanitarian side of our work because wherever there is conflict there will also be poverty in the extreme. So we had to increase that work recently.

CT: The conflict in Lebanon has been going on for three weeks now. Do you think the international community has done enough to secure a long-term end to the conflict in Lebanon?

AW: It is very easy for people to say the international community should do more. It is very difficult to actually bring about peace. War is war. If people are destined to kill each other there is very little you can do to stop it.

CT: The US was criticised for failing to condemn Israel. Do you think this is a fair criticism?

|QUOTE|AW: Just condemning one side will not actually deal with the matter realistically. The fact is that in any conflict there are usually two sides involved. Two sides have suffered. But nobody is suffering like the Lebanese people have suffered at present. And that is our real priority and that is our real concern, the priority of the Lebanese.

But just condemning one side is very difficult and the fact is that Hezbollah have got to take some responsibility as well because they are the ones who have been attacking and firing on Israel and as far as Israel is concerned their attacks are just against Hezbollah.

|AD|CT: The UN is due to issue a resolution over the coming days. What kind of resolution is FRME looking to see?

AW: Well the fact is that even resolutions are just broken by the dozen. The UN just saying something will not mean that it will happen. Especially as the credibility of the UN is not even that great at the moment. What we are hoping will happen is that there will simply be a ceasefire and that there may be the willingness of both parties to work together. But we know for a fact there will not be the willingness of Hezbollah to work with anybody.

CT: What impact is this going to have on the long-term stability of the region? How is long-term peace going to be secured?

AW: Maybe we’re not. It is very, very serious and there is no knowing and no telling of the severity of the situation at the moment. We have to keep hoping and praying for peace but it does not mean that it will come. It has not come in the last however many years and so who says it is going to come now. But we still see it as our calling to work for it.