Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Egypt stops Israeli attack on Beirut

|
|
 
  
Published: July 16, 2006 at 9:08 PM

CAIRO, July 16 (UPI) -- Egyptian leaders convinced Israeli leaders to stop a planned attack on Beirut last week over the abduction of two Israeli troops, Ha'aretz reported.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak also disclosed an Iranian offer to negotiate a settlement with Hezbollah, as part of Arab initiatives to resolve the crisis, but he said Tehran's offer was "a trap."

"Egypt was keen not to let the Israelis into Beirut," Mubarak told reporters Sunday, following talks with United Arab Emirates President, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan. "If we hadn't stepped in, Beirut would have been destroyed."

Mubarak urged an unconditional cease-fire.

"It's impossible that anyone on either side will respond to any conditions except in a ceasefire and calm, and then we can talk with logic and reason," Mubarak said. "Without a ceasefire, people continue to die, infrastructure is destroyed, the people are made homeless. Therefore I call on Israel to end the hostilities. War will not solve this."

The tension in the area has drawn lines between neighboring nations, with Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei openly praising Hezbollah and Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti leaders donating a total of $70 million to Lebanon in aid, the paper said.

Topics: Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Sheik Khalifa
© 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...
Photoshop this woman at the wheel
New book is full of girls in their bedrooms, will be read by people who need to have a seat right...
★☆☆☆☆ Michigan is an uninhabitable swamp. Do not settle