Vatican disappointed summit didn't call for immediate cease-fire

Published: 2006-07-27

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican shares the disappointment of those who had hoped the Rome summit on the Middle East would lead to an immediate cease-fire in the conflict along the Israeli-Lebanese border, Vatican officials said. The conclusion -- supported by the United States -- that a cease-fire should be called only once there are guarantees it will not be broken "only appears realistic," said Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, Vatican foreign minister and an observer at the July 26 conference. "Such conditions can and must be created with means that do not include the killing of innocent people," the archbishop said in a July 27 interview with Vatican Radio. "An immediate suspension of hostilities is possible. In fact, it is obligatory," he said. Participating foreign ministers, led by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, issued a statement at the end of the meeting pledging "to work in partnership with the international community to provide immediate humanitarian relief to the people of Lebanon, expressing deep concern for civilian casualties and suffering, the destruction of civil infrastructure and the rising number of internally displaced people."

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