Lebanon Blockade to Continue

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert says the blockade of Lebanon will continue.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told visiting UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen on Tuesday that Israel would end its air and sea blockade of Lebanon once an enhanced UNIFIL force deploys at the Lebanese-Syrian border crossings and at the Beirut airport.

The UN (German ships) is supposed to deploy to check shipping into Lebanon so Hizbollah cannot re-arm.

It also squeezes Lebanon and to a certain extent Syria in the cash flow department. This is the American's main strategy against Iran and Syria. Squeeze them economically. See: Cash Flow Jihad Meets Aftermath.

Olmert stressed to Roed-Larsen the importance of putting the force together and dispatching it rapidly so that it could deploy in south Lebanon and enable Israel to withdraw its troops.

According to a statement released by the Prime Minister's Office after the meeting, Olmert said that from Israel's point of view the most important part of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 was the unconditional release of IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

Israeli officials have stressed in recent days that the failure to release Goldwasser and Regev is a clear violation of the resolution.

Ah ha. A reason to restart the war.

Just a matter of time.

Update: 23 Aug. '06 1001z

Lebanon is asking for Dutch naval support

The Lebanese government has asked the Netherlands to contribute naval support to an expanded UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

The Dutch have ruled out contributing any ground troops to the mission. Foreign Minister Ben Bot was meeting his Lebanese counterpart Fawzi Salloukh as part of a diplomatic mission Tuesday to discuss other ways the Netherlands might help, spokesman Dirk Jan Vermeij said.