YONA YAHAV, MAYOR OF HAIFA: Yes, the five days of silence brought out of the homes the inhabitants in masses and in big numbers. Slowly but surely the life in Haifa is going back to routine. I must say, the people are still a bit hesitant because we are still instructing them to be safe and to try and do all the precautions needed because the war did not stop yet and Haifa is still a target. But you can see the businesses are still being opened - yesterday only partly, but today I was wandering around of course the city and I saw that life is coming back to normal.

GEORGE NEGUS: Is the fear, though, that this could be the quiet before another storm? There's no suggestion of a cease-fire and Hezbollah are showing no sign of stopping their rockets?

YONA YAHAV: Definitely so. We are very worried that this is going to be the case, that the economy is on a hold. Usually the summers in Haifa are very hectic, but everything is empty now, the beaches are empty, no festivals, everything is on hold. So we can't say that life is coming to normal because we are still afraid that something might happen.

GEORGE NEGUS: I hear that you were a city of 250,000 people - about 70,000 of what you've described as displaced persons have left. And you are also a multicultural city - you actually had an Arab population and a Jewish population living together in peace. It must be an almighty blow for this to happen now?

YONA YAHAV: Yes - this is, it is the only place on Earth which is exercising full peace on a daily basis between Jews and Arabs throughout the last 100 years. The harmonal life between all fractions of society is something outstanding. But no Hezbollah, no Nazwallah, no suicide bomber can jeopardise this sort of life. And we can see it once you walk across the Arab quarters of the mixed quarters, you see no tension, no gravity, no demonstration whatsoever. Everything is quiet and this is Haifa. We are the only scenic island in the Middle East.

GEORGE NEGUS: Mr Mayor, you support the government's current action in Lebanon, but I understand you were a leading voice for Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. What has caused you to change your mind so drastically?

YONA YAHAV: 10 years back I was a member of our Parliament and I initiated together with my friend, we initiated the movement for one side of withdrawal from south Lebanon's. We took over the whole parliament and the government and Israel eventually withdrew from south Lebanon. The international community was absolutely agreeable about this step and the UN recognised the border between Israel and Lebanon. So nobody has the right to, to jeopardise our sovereignty about upper Galillee or to kidnap soldiers from our soil. Therefore we have to do something.

GEORGE NEGUS: Is it true, sir, if I can interrupt you there, were you quoted correctly when you said, "I am in favour of smashing the entire infrastructure of Lebanon"? That's an enormous political shift that you've made in a few years.

YONA YAHAV:Yes, it is so, because what happened since the year 2000 when we withdrew from Lebanon, that the Lebanese - the Lebanese Government and people - gave shelter to a terrorist group, enabled them to build a state within a state, to get armed. And all the armed are being geared towards us in order to annihilate us. Once it happened, those people are partners - full partners - of terrorism. We have to help the civil government of Lebanon to exercise a sovereignty. Today they are not exercising their sovereignty. Once they are not exercising their sovereignty, we are in danger and you see it now. Never, never, never before Haifa was under attack. We had never war in Haifa. It's the first time that we are facing war. We are facing 70 deadly rockets, 11 people dead. What is it all about? Why not be very tough on this matter when my beloved city is under attack?

GEORGE NEGUS: Mr Mayor, Shimon Peres has said today in Washington, he thinks this could go on for weeks. Prime Minister Olmert, who you met last weekend, has said there will be no cease-fire, that Israel will continue with incursions into Lebanon, in the air and on the ground. Does this mean you are looking at an open-ended time at war with Hezbollah?

YONA YAHAV : Now, you have to bear in mind and also the listeners - there is one condition for peace in the Middle East or tranquillity in the Middle East - the total dismantlement and disarmament of Hezbollah. I couldn't care less if Hezbollah will try to be a political movement within the system of Lebanon like AMAL became. But as long as Hezbollah is armed and not disarmed by whoever - by international forces or by the Lebanese Government, the war will continue. This is what the nation wants, this is what the people of Haifa want.

GEORGE NEGUS: When you say smashing the entire infrastructure of Lebanon, do you really mean Lebanon or Hezbollah?

YONA YAHAV: The civil infrastructure of Lebanon which was reconstructed, especially by the late prime minister Harari, is serving Hezbollah. Once it serves Hezbollah, it has to be destroyed, because we have to unable Hezbollah to move around and to attack us. Look what happens in the upper north - the upper north is absolutely on hold because it's under shell of rockets always, every day, 24 hours a day.

GEORGE NEGUS: So you don't see any difference between Hezbollah and the rest of the Lebanese Government?

YONA YAHAV : As long as they are giving shelter, as long as they are not dismissing out of their society the Hezbollah, as long as they are not speaking up like the Jews are doing, their leader is doing, for me they are full partners of Hezbollah.

GEORGE NEGUS: Do you have any faith in the rest of the world coming to your aid and ending this war? Do you think the UN or the EU or any other kind of international force could bring this horrible state of affairs to an end?

YONA YAHAV: I am very much in favour of any international force who will be able to dismantle Hezbollah, no matter from which country. You have to know - once peace will come between Lebanon and Israel, Beirut and Haifa will become the paradise of the Near East. I know it, the Lebanese know it, the Beirut citizens know it and the Mayor of Beirut knows it.

GEORGE NEGUS: Mr Mayor, thank you very much. Shalom.

YONA YAHAV: Shalom.