PARIS (AP) - France and Italy, along with predominantly Muslim Turkey and Malaysia, signaled willingness Saturday to send troops for a beefed-up U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, but consultations are still needed to hammer out the force's makeup and mandate. | Lots of consultations, all done in posh surroundings in Cyprus and New York. |
The resolution, drafted by France and the United States, authorizes 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to help a similar number of Lebanese troops take control of southern Lebanon as Israeli forces withdraw. Analysts said France would be well-suited to lead such a force, given its diplomatic success in acting as go-between in negotiations involving the United States and Lebanon.
As France had argued for, the resolution strengthens the existing U.N. force in southern Lebanon - UNIFIL, which now has 2,000 soldiers acting as observers and has been in place since 1978. Washington has been concerned over UNIFIL's ineffectiveness in containing violence along the Israel-Lebanon frontier and it originally pressed for the deployment of a new international force separate from UNIFIL.
The strengthened U.N. force is to monitor a cease-fire, ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians and back up the Lebanese army in asserting government control in the south. The resolution authorizes UNIFIL to use "all necessary action" to make sure "its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind." Its troops could use force to ensure the movement of aid workers and protect civilians in imminent danger.
Further discussions are needed to pin down exactly when and under what conditions UNIFIL can use firepower. And the Security Council said UNIFIL's mandate setting out its roles might be "enhanced" in a later resolution.
| This is all chickenshit nonsense. The rules of engagement should be simple: any Hezbie with a weapon gets exactly one chance to drop the heat and get his mitts in the air. And no second chances. |
France - which already participates in UNIFIL along with China, Ghana, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland and
| Several modern armies in that list, and not one of them had the stones to tell the Hezbies to knock it off over the last six years. Any reason to think the new, improved UNIFIL will be any better? |
| The Brits used to call it the French 'smell factor' in the Levant. |
| Or at least to protect its Lebanese and Syrian interests, which comes first. |
Predominantly Muslim nations also expressed willingness to provide peacekeepers.
In Malaysia, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said his country was preparing about 1,000 soldiers to take part in the mission once fighting stops. Razak also said two of Malaysia's Muslim neighbors, Indonesia and Brunei, were prepared to participate, although there was no official comment from those governments.