Powell: Border attacks could plunge region into wider conflict

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday that Washington was concerned that guerrilla attacks by the militant Lebanese-based Hezbollah organization along Israel's northern border could plunge the region into a broader conflict.

"There is a very real danger of the situation along the border widening the conflict in the region," Powell said after talks with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud on curbing attacks on Israel by the militant Hezbollah organization, to avoid a possible harsh Israeli reprisal and an escalation of border hostilities, diplomatic sources said.

"It is essential for all those committed to peace to act immediately to stop actions across the border. This is the message I have conveyed and will continue to convey to all governments in the region... This is the purpose of my trip to Beirut and to Damascus later in the afternoon."

Aridi accused the United States of being indifferent to the killing and suffering in the Palestinian territories and to the prospect of that conflict will escalate into a regional conflagration.

"For the Americans, it's no problem if the region descends into chaos and destruction, sees mass massacres, mass annihilation, an Israeli holocaust against the Palestinians, Nazism, fascism, terrorism, detention camps, expulsions, killings, displacement of people, starving and depriving people of water," Aridi said in an interview to Future television.

"What's important for them [the Americans] is Israel's security," the minister said.

Aridi said there could be no solution to the fighting without recognition of Palestinian rights and a withdrawal from Lebanese and Syrian land.

"It is legitimate for these [Arab] countries to defend their rights, land, sovereignty, people, security, stability and future. We did that and we will continue. This is what I think Powell will be told," he said.