I told Tony Blair yesterday . . . I wanted the British Army out of Israel in 1948 and thank God we achieved it, but I don’t mind having British soldiers as part of an international force in Lebanon because I trust the integrity of the British Government and the British soldiers. I know that, as part of the international force, they will help fulfil the obligation, which is to push out Hezbollah from the areas threatening the state of Israel and help disarm this organisation as part of UN Resolution 1559.

But I didn’t make it a precondition, and I am not talking only about the British soldiers. As far as I am concerned the French are welcome, the Germans are welcome, the Italians, Turkish forces, the Saudis, Egyptians — anyone that is determined to fulfil that mission of stopping violence against innocent Israelis from Lebanon and disarming this murderous organisation Hezbollah, which is the long arm of Iran.

In the past Israel hasn’t been very happy to see international soldiers on the ground in this area. Why is this situation different?

You are talking about the Palestinian Territories, Judaea, Samaria and Gaza. This is a different situation. That is one thing. Another, in Lebanon we wanted an effective international force. We didn’t like very much Unifil, which was very useless and helpless. Look what happened. Did you hear of any particular efforts of Unifil to prevent the attacks against Israel in the first place? So they were not useful and that is why we were unhappy with them.

The territories of Judaea, Samaria and Gaza are no parallel to Lebanon. Lebanon is a country governed and dominated entirely by a terrorist organisation and the Government is unable to cope with it. And while Israel pulled out entirely from Lebanon (in May 2000) as was recognised by UN Resolution 425, I think that the only way at this time to stop this violence is by first of all (training) the Lebanese Army to fulfil this duty and helping with an additional international robust force that will be effective.

Can you conceive of a situation in which the Security Council would pass a resolution with which you were not entirely happy; and if that were to happen what would your response be?

I hope that the countries involved will apply the necessary measures. Everyone understands that Israel was the defensive side and Hezbollah was the offensive side. The G8 took a very responsible resolution which we entirely agree with, and the EU ministerial council adopted more or less the same opinion, and so did the Convention in Rome. So why should I be afraid of a resolution where all the parties will suddenly decide something different? I’m very hopeful and I will do everything possible in order to influence the resolution to this direction.

When will the multinational force come in?

There should be overlap so that we will pull out and they will come in without a time gap that will allow Hezbollah to rebuild their position. It’s as simple as that. We want a ceasefire and we don’t want to occupy the south of Lebanon.

How often are you in contact with Mr Blair?

Quite often. We talk, I don’t know, every ten days, every two weeks. We have been talking like this now for quite a time and I visited him about a month and a half ago and I found him to be very responsive, very sensitive and enormously experienced. He is very rewarding to listen to.

Does he ever mention that he is under domestic pressure? You know that world opinion is leaning one way and Mr Bush and Mr Blair seem to be your two strongest allies.

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