 Prime Minister John Howard says he sees no value for Australia in sending troops to join a peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
| "We got more important things to do." |
The United Nations is moving to put together a multi-national force in southern Lebanon to support a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah after their brief but destructive war there. | “... we're not very keen on the idea of being part of something that is so unsoundly based...” |
Mr Howard on Friday said he was unimpressed with the efforts so far and saw little value in Australia taking part. "I am very disinterested in sending Australian personnel to a theatre where there's no clear mandate," he told Southern Cross radio. "We would be something of a target and we're not very keen on the idea of being part of something that is so unsoundly based. We do, of course, have a lot of commitments elsewhere. Unless it has a very strong mandate, I think a lot of Western countries would be (a target)."
| I give it a year, outside, before "unknown parties" boom a barracks. |
| “I think the French, having made a lot of noise in the first place, looked as though they were falling a long way short of their rhetoric...” |
Mr Howard said France, which overnight agreed to send an extra 1,600 troops to bolster the revamped UN force in Lebanon, had failed to live up to its earlier promises. "I think the French, having made a lot of noise in the first place, looked as though they were falling a long way short of their rhetoric," he said.
| "Like most people, I'm not in the least surprised..." |
"It's still a long way short. The stabilisation force in Lebanon was meant to be about 15,000. To have any hope of tranquillising Hizbollah, it will need to be of that size." |