✍Rice's surprise visit to Beirut and the "Siniora kiss"

On 24 July 2006, the thirteenth day of the war, the American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice arrived by helicopter from Cyprus on an unannounced five-hour visit; Fouad Siniora received her with a kiss on both cheeks, telling her "thank you for your courage and steadfastness", and the picture became a subject of mockery as "the kiss of the war". Siniora asked for an immediate ceasefire and said the bombing had set Lebanon back fifty years, and Rice answered that a ceasefire had to be "sustainable" within a new arrangement; she also met Nabih Berri as Hezbollah's representative. After meeting Berri and Siniora, Rice moved to the embassy in Awkar, where she lunched with the leaders of 14 March, Jumblatt at their head, and scolded them for "not taking advantage of the opportunities to get rid of Hezbollah"; Frangieh said she "meant to humiliate those who ate at her ambassador's table".