Middle Orient

Ms Rice, speaking en route to Israel, said there must be no place for “terrorist groups” like Hezbollah to launch attacks from Lebanese territory.

But, just six years on, Israelis stand almost unanimously behind the decision to wage a new war across the country’s northern border.

Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, James Baker, Madeleine Albright and others found themselves dragged into the business of trying to bring peace to the Middle East.

Rice spoke with reporters en route to the Middle East, where she is scheduled to meet with Israeli officials Monday evening.

Standing in front of this 8-year-old boy lying in a hospital bed, the “conflict in the Middle East” and the “cost of war” seem endless and suffocating. His pain cannot possibly be imagined

THE UN RELIEF chief condemned Israel on Sunday for “violating humanitarian law” over its blistering raids on Lebanon as the Jewish state and Hizbollah killed more civilians in another wave of attacks.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Reuters) — Envoys from three European countries joined intensifying diplomacy in Israel on Sunday aimed at ending fighting between Israeli forces and Hizbollah that has wrecked swathes of Lebanon and left hundreds dead.

BAGHDAD (Agencies) — Car bombs killed more than 60 Iraqis on Sunday as Prime Minister Nuri Maliki prepared for a White House visit expected to focus on halting what many see as Iraq’s accelerating slide towards all-out sectarian civil war.

BAGHDAD — With concern on the Middle East focused on Lebanon, this week’s visit to Washington by Iraq’s prime minister may offer US policy makers a timely reminder of how deeply troubled their project in Iraq has become.

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia is expanding its military arsenal to counter what it sees as Iran’s growing influence in a region convulsed by violence.