U.N. plans Lebanon 'exclusion zone'

Fri Aug 25, 11:45 AM ET

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The French foreign minister says the U.N. will establish an "exclusion zone" in south Lebanon where it will disarm unauthorized armed men. Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the European Union will provide "more than half" of the peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon. Annan said the U.N. force will be "strong, credible and robust."

Annan had said he believed he would be able to persuade European countries to supply enough troops for the 15,000 peacekeeping forces for southern Lebanon.

"I came with the hope that I will leave Brussels with a large number of soldiers," Annan told reporters before an emergency meeting of European Union foreign ministers got under way. A U.N. cease-fire resolution calls for the force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, to expand from 2,000 troops to 15,000.

Despite Annan's optimism, French President Jacques Chirac said he did not believe that 15,000 troops would be needed, citing the small area of the territory to be patrolled. Chirac on Thursday pledged to deploy a total of 2,000 troops from his country.

"My feeling is that the figure that was put forward at the beginning of discussions - 15,000 for a reinforced UNIFIL - was a figure that was quite excessive," he said.

About 150 French soldiers - an engineering team - came ashore Friday at Naqoura in southern Lebanon. They joined 250 of their countrymen already in Lebanon and raised to 2,200 the number of U.N. peacekeepers already in the south.

Most of the EU's 25 members have been reluctant to take part in the peacekeeping effort because of uncertainty about the conditions under which troops would be authorized to use force.

But Chirac's pledge, along with his offer to continue leading the force, is almost certain to generate momentum for a breakthrough at the meeting of EU foreign ministers.

"I expect that the core of the force will be European," EU foreign and security affairs chief Javier Solana. "I don't want to give specific numbers, but it will be a sufficient number to make the core of the force."

Italy, has already pledged to provide up to 3,000 soldiers - the largest contingent so far. Besides France, other nations considering contributions include Spain, Denmark, Germany, and Greece.

On Friday, the Belgian government - which also had hesitated on making a commitment - said it would now contribute troops. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said Belgium's contribution to the U.N. force in Lebanon could reach almost 400 and be in place by October. The Belgian contingent would include de-mining, medical and reconstruction units, he said.

In New York, a U.N. official said the world body is expected to hold another formal meeting Monday for countries that have expressed interest in contributing troops to the expanded U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon. The U.N. wants to nail down concrete numbers so the deployment can start, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because there has been no official announcement.

The U.N. has appealed for European troops to balance pledges from several Muslim countries so the force will be broadly acceptable to both the Israelis and Lebanese. These include Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei - countries which have no diplomatic ties with the Jewish state - which have together offered about 4,000 infantrymen.

"I certainly believe that Europe can make a significant contribution," said Geoff Hoon, Britain's secretary of state for Europe. "We have already seen a number of countries indicating ... their contributions and I'm sure there will be further offers today."

For Europe's prestige, the stakes are high. A broad EU agreement on sending in a substantial peacekeeping force would boost the bloc's ambitions to rival the United States as a global player. Failure would reinforce perceptions that it talks big but can't act.

Belgium's foreign minister said European nations were able to take the lead in the Middle East peacekeeping while the United States had lost the trust of Arab nations.

Washington "is not able to play an active and open role in ... solving the conflict because it has no credibility whatsoever for Arab and Muslim nations as a negotiator or as a provider of neutral peacekeeping troops," Karel De Gucht said. "It comparison, the countries of the European Union are acceptable to all parties involved."

The United States has explicitly ruled out participation in the peacekeeping force. The U.S. often provides logistics for U.N. peacekeeping forces - which it is expected to do in Lebanon - but as a rule it does not provide troops unless it is commanding the force.

UNIFIL, in place since the 1970s, has been widely considered ineffectual and has been dogged by a vague mandate.

Ambiguities remain in the recent U.N. resolution, but it does considerably clarify the rules of engagement, authorizing an expanded U.N. force to "to take all necessary action" to prevent hostile activities wherever peacekeepers are stationed.

The peacekeepers are to help 15,000 Lebanese troops extend their authority into southern Lebanon, which has been controlled by Hezbollah, as Israel withdraws its soldiers.

Sporadic violence has marked the U.N.-brokered cease-fire in Lebanon that took hold Aug. 14 and ended 34 days of ferocious fighting, but the truce has thus far held.

The Europeans, who have bitter memories of their troops being humiliated while serving under weak U.N. mandates in Rwanda and the Balkans, generally agree that the new UNIFIL will not forcibly disarm Hezbollah, but will only oversee a political solution that would induce the militia to turn in its weapons to the Lebanese army.

Similarly, they are unlikely to agree to any further tasks, such as deploying forces along the Lebanon- Syria border in order to interdict possible arms supplies to Hezbollah.

Source

About headlines and content that has changed after it was added to this site - see disclaimer here

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.