European Union foreign ministers called for an immediate end to Israel-Hizbullah hostilities, watering down demands for an immediate ceasefire at the insistence of Britain, Germany, and the Czech Republic.
A joint statement adopted at a crisis meeting of the 25-nation bloc said: "The Council calls for an immediate end to hostilities to be followed by a sustainable ceasefire."
The three opposing countries, at emergency EU foreign ministers' talks, offered an alternative draft calling for an eventual "cessation of hostilities," with no time frame given.
Meanwhile, the EU's Finnish presidency said Tuesday the organization would not add Hizbullah to its list of terrorist organizations. "Given the sensitive situation where we are, I don't think this is something we will be acting on now," Finland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said Tuesday after a ministerial meeting.
In Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his state would agree to a ceasefire only when "conditions on the ground" change. "We will agree on a ceasefire when we know with certainty that the conditions on the ground are different from those that led to the outbreak of the war," Olmert stated.
He also vowed that Hizbullah would no longer threaten the Jewish state after its Lebanon offensive. "Hizbullah will not be able to threaten Israel," Olmert said. "The threat of Hizbullah will never be the same."
