(MNA) -- Although two weeks have passed since the Israeli army began its military attack on Lebanon, all diplomatic measures to force the Zionists to put an end to the bombardment of innocent civilians seem to have been in vain. The foreign ministers of Germany and France, the U.S. secretary of state and the United Nations deputy secretary general have failed to convince Israel to accept an immediate ceasefire. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had held meetings with both the Lebanese and Israeli officials during her recent Middle East tour, believes that it is still too soon to discuss a ceasefire. Rice, who has not proposed any peace plan for solving the current crisis in the Middle East, announced that the United States wants Hezbollah forces to be disarmed, to be followed by the deployment of NATO forces between the border region of the occupied territories of Palestine and the Litani river -- about 20 kilometers from the frontier -- so that Hezbollah forces will be unable to fire missiles into the occupied territories in the future.
Undoubtedly, the Lebanese government and political groups will never agree with such a proposal because the deployment of NATO forces would be a violation of Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The recent proposal is not meant to guarantee peace and stability in the region, but is actually a prologue for realizing the Greater Middle East Initiative, which the U.S. has long sought to implement. Naturally, regional nations and particularly the Lebanese nation will never allow the U.S., the European Union, and the Zionist regime to turn Lebanon into a base for plots against other countries.