TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- There is still no sign that Israel will lift the blockade on Lebanon despite efforts by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is on a Middle East tour.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said following talks with Annan Wednesday that he hopes a permanent cease-fire with Lebanon would set the ground for direct contacts with Israel.
"We hope a new situation will come up between Lebanon and Israel," Olmert said, noting that "no conflict exists between Israel and the Lebanese people."
Without making any hint to the blockade, Olmert said "we hope that conditions will change quickly to open the way for direct contacts between the Israeli government and Lebanon that would lead to an agreement between the two countries."
On his part, Annan said innocent civilians in Israel and Lebanon had been killed during the month-long Israel-Hezbollah war and that it was time all inhabitants in the region lived in peace, an objective which the implementation of Resolution 1701 should achieve.
He said he discussed with Lebanon the fate of the two Israeli soldiers whose kidnapping by Hezbollah sparked the war on July 12.
"I have talked to Hezbollah's ministers in the government and there is no reason that makes me believe they are not alive," he said.
Haaretz quoted an unidentified political source as saying there is "veiled and mute agreement" between the United Nations and Israel on the "need to keep up the blockade on Lebanon until the arrival of international forces and their deployment along the Lebanese-Syrian border."
The source said the Lebanese government is not exerting real pressures to lift the embargo "out of concern that arms might be channeled to Hezbollah."
In Beirut, Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said Lebanon is awaiting Annan's answer on lifting the blockade following his talks in Israel.
