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U.K. PM and U.N. Sec-Gen Speak about MidEast at G-8

The Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair, and the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan on Monday called for the deployment of international forces to make Hezbollah stop bombing Israel. Blair said after talks with Annan on the margins of the G-8 summit being held in St. Petersburg, Russia, that ?The blunt reality is that this violence is not going to stop unless we create the conditions for the cessation of violence.? It is well known that Iran and Syria are supporting Hezbollah, an Islamic terrorist group based out of Lebanon that also has members sitting in the Lebanese parliament.

"The only way we`re going to get a cessation of hostilities is if we have the deployment of an international force into that area that can stop the bombardment over into Israel and therefore gives Israel a reason to stop its attacks on Hezbollah," Mr. Blair said.

Mr. Blair?s and Mr. Annan?s comments came a day after that G-8 summit in which world leaders decided to take as unified response as was possible to what many see as a growing Middle East crisis. Leaders said the Hezbollah and Hamas terrorist groups were responsible for the increasing violence in the region, and while they noted that the Jewish state has right to defend itself, said too that Israel must also exercise restraint and do what it can to avoid civilian casualties.