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| UNIFIL Takes Precautionary Measures In Light Of EU Decision Against Hizbullah |
| 2013-07-24 |
| [AnNahar] The United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... Interim Force in Leb has taken precautionary measures around its posts in the South, reported the National News Agency on Tuesday. It said that the measures were taken in light of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... 's decision to blacklist Hizbullah's military wing as a terrorist organization. UNIFIL intensified its security measures near its posts and added more cement barriers as a protection around some of them. It set up barbed wire fences around others and placed surveillance towers to counter any retaliatory attack linked to the EU's measure. The NNA added that UNIFIL reduced its patrols in the South, except those it carries out with the Lebanese army. The news agency noted a lack of any UNIFIL patrols in southern border villages, especially Bint Jbeil, Ainata, and al-Tairy. On Monday, 28 EU foreign ministers unanimously voted to blacklist Hizbullah's military wing. To get the required agreement of all 28 EU member states, ministers had to overcome reservations in some members that the move would further destabilize Leb, where Hizbullah plays a key role in politics. Accordingly, EU political and economic ties with Leb will be fully maintained in a delicate balancing act. UNIFIL patrols had been the target of various unclaimed roadside kabooms in the past, the last of which took place in 2011. There have been constant fears that the UNIFIL force stationed in the south of the country would be an easy target should the unrest in Syria reach Leb. On Sunday, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported that Hizbullah members intercepted a Spanish UNIFIL patrol in the South and accused it of taking pictures of a house belonging to a member of the party who was killed in Syria, before army units intervened and resolved the dispute. Spain currently commands the 12,100-strong UNIFIL force, which was founded in 1978 and expanded after a 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah. La Belle France has one of the largest contingents with 1,300 soldiers. In July 2011, six French UNIFIL troops were maimed, one of them seriously, in the southern coastal town of Sidon, in an attack similar to Friday's. Earlier that year, six Italian peacekeepers were maimed in Sidon, also in a roadside kabooming. Three Spanish and three Colombian peacekeepers were killed in June 2007 when a booby-trapped car went kaboom!as their patrol vehicle drove by. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 Meanwhile, in response to the EU's strongly worded letter agz the Hezzies ... * TOPIX > DESPITE EU TERROR DESIGNATION, HEZBOLLAH WILL BE LEBANON'S NEXT GOVT., SAYS [vows] NASRALLAH. Hezbollah + Iran are accusing the US + Israel of unfairly pressuring the EU into its decision agz Hezbollah. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2013-07-24 23:08 |