Muslim world demands Lebanon ceasefire

Putrajaya (Malaysia), Aug 3: Leaders from the Muslim world, spearheaded by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, today sought an immediate end to Israeli attacks on Lebanon and inclusion of Muslim forces in any future peacekeeping operation.

Mindful of restive populations back home, and aghast at the death toll in heavily Muslim southern Lebanon, select members of the Organisation of Islamic Conference gathered in special session -- more than three weeks after the start of the crisis.

''We must show preparedness to contribute forces for peacekeeping operations under the United Nations banner,'' Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia's prime minister and host of the conference, said in remarks prepared for delivery behind closed doors. ''Malaysia is ready to do that.'' Diplomats from OIC countries say they want some member states -- Turkey, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan have all been mentioned -- to contribute to a ''Blue Helmet'' force of UN peacekeepers to separate the combatants.

The OIC, its leaders under mounting domestic pressure, is also hopeful it can lean on Western powers, chiefly Israel's superpower ally the United States, to back an immediate ceasefire and deploy peacekeepers.

''We don't want a clash of civilisations, but all over the Muslim world a very negative feeling is arising in the streets,'' Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri told reporters before the start of the meeting in Malaysia's administrative capital.

Among others attending were the president of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, the prime minister of Muslim powerhouse Turkey, and representatives of Pakistan, Egypt, and Lebanon.

EYES ON AHMADINEJAD But it was the charismatic figure of Ahmadinejad, his hardline comments on Israel reinvigorated by public backing from Iran's supreme clerical leader, that was most likely to animate the conference and advance efforts to get the OIC's voice heard above the diplomatic din.

Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, arrived just before the opening session and declined any comment. Iranian state television yesterday quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in matters of state, as vowing unyielding support for Lebanese resistance against Israel.

At least 643 people in Lebanon, most civilians, and 56 Israelis have been killed in the conflict. Almost a quarter of the population of Lebanon, some 750,000 people, have displaced.

The US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch said late yesterday that the bodies of 28 people killed in an Israeli air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana had been recovered and 13 people were missing. The official Lebanese toll is 54.

Diplomats say the United States and France are still ironing out differences on an initial resolution calling for a truce, a buffer zone and the disarmament of Hizbollah.

But Paris, tipped as leader of a peacekeeping force, said it would not send troops without a truce and a pact in principle on the framework for a long-term peace deal by Israel, Hizbollah and the Beirut government.

Washington wants a force as soon as fighting stops, with talks to begin then on a permanent ceasefire.

Reuters