WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- White House spokesman Tony Snow said Thursday it's premature to talk about committing U.S. resources to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
At the regular White House press briefing, Snow said President Bush discussed the situation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and expressed his concern over the level of civilian deaths and the humanitarian crisis the more than week-long conflict has produced.
Snow said, however, the president puts the blame squarely on Hezbollah for initiating the hostilities by crossing into Israeli territory to kidnap two soldiers and then by endangering Lebanese civilians by "using the people of south Lebanon ... as human shields, putting rockets in their houses and radars on their barns, saying, in effect, if you're going to fight against us, you're going to have to go after civilians."
Asked whether Bush would be willing to commit military resources to a stabilizing force, Snow said: "That's something that's premature. ... First thing you've got to do is to have a cessation of hostilities so that you can bring forces into the region in such a way as to allow the government of Lebanon to assert effective control. And that is a key consideration."
