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G8 leaders urge to end to Mideast violence

RIA Novosti

16/07/2006 21:08 STRELNA (near St. Petersburg), July 16 (RIA Novosti) - G8 leaders adopted a statement on the situation around the Middle East, calling upon the parties in the conflict to stop violence and bring the situation in Gaza and Lebanon back to normal.

French President Jacques Chirac said the leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations supported a UN decision to send a liaison mission to the conflict zone in order to draw a clear picture of the current crisis. The French leader also said the G8 was calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

The French leader said the main goal of the mission was to determine ways to release Israeli hostages kept by Hamas and Hizbollah and normalize the situation in the region.

"The root cause of the problems in the region is the absence of a comprehensive Middle East peace," a joint statement said.

"The immediate crisis results from efforts by extremist forces to destabilize the region and to frustrate the aspirations of the Palestinian, Israeli and Lebanese people for democracy and peace," the document said. "In Gaza, elements of Hamas launched rocket attacks against Israeli territory and abducted an Israeli soldier. In Lebanon, Hizbollah, in violation of the Blue Line, attacked Israel from Lebanese territory and killed and captured Israeli soldiers, reversing the positive trends that began with the Syrian withdrawal in 2005, and undermining the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora."

Chirac also said G8 leaders reaffirmed the necessity of revitalized talks with the President of the Palestinian National Administration Mahmoud Abbas.

Chirac said G8 considered Lebanese government's loss of control over its territory unacceptable and criticized all forces that challenged the government's authority in the country as a destabilizing factor.

But the leaders also called on Israel to exercise control in their statement: "We call upon Israel to exercise utmost restraint, seeking to avoid casualties among innocent civilians and damage to civilian infrastructure and to refrain from acts that would destabilize the Lebanese government."

Following the new wave of violence in the Middle East, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that the abduction of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah Wednesday could have been designed, among other things, to frustrate dialogue within Lebanon and added he did not rule out further provocations in the conflict zone.

Israel started a military operation in Lebanon after the abduction of its soldiers, including launching air strikes Lebanon's infrastructure facilities, while also bombing the Gaza Strip.