SOS
08-25-2006, 06:39 PM
Reuters (http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-08-25T182316Z_01_L13492527_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST.xml&pageNumber=2&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage2)
EU nations to provide core of Lebanon force
By Mark John
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European nations agreed on Friday to offer more than half the troops for an expanded United Nations peacekeeping contingent in Lebanon.
U.N. chief Kofi Annan hailed the move as creating the backbone of a credible force, which could total up to 15,000 troops, even though EU officials warned it could be months before its full deployment.
Annan called for the first troops to arrive in days to begin policing a fragile truce between Israel and Hizbollah and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said the Italian contingent could leave as soon as Tuesday.
"When you put it all together, Europe is providing the backbone to the force...We can now begin to put together a credible force that the (U.N.) Security Council authorized," he said after an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers.
"We should deploy, I hope, within the next few days, not the next few weeks," he told a news conference.
Clarifying doubts over the leadership of the mission, Annan said he had asked France, who will contribute 2,000 troops, to continue to lead UNIFIL until February 2007. The leadership would then pass to Italy, which has pledged up to 3,000 soldiers
European countries feared getting caught in the crossfire of any fresh hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas and wanted assurances they would operate under robust enough rules to be able to defend themselves, diplomats said.
"The significant move of the week was Annan coming here," said one envoy.
MUSLIM COMMITMENTS
Aside from Italy and France, diplomats at the Brussels meeting said Spain was ready to send up to 1,200 troops.
Poland said it was prepared to contribute about 500 troops, Belgium offered up to 400 and current EU president Finland said it was readying a company of up to 250.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Europe's total contribution would be between 6,500 and 7,000, while Ireland's Dermot Ahern put it as high as 9,000 and Italy's Massimo d'Alema at as many as 10,000.
U.N. officials want a strong European contingent alongside a sizeable Muslim component in the expanded UNIFIL force, which is to work with 15,000 Lebanese troops being deployed in the south.
Annan said Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh had offered troops, and that he was in contact with Turkey over its role.
Highlighting divisions in the large Muslim country over the issue, Turkey's president said he opposed any role.
"Sending soldiers is not our responsibility. I'm against it," private CNN Turk television quoted Ahmet Necdet Sezer as saying. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), on the other hand, is known to favor sending troops.
FRANCE PERPLEXED
French President Jacques Chirac, whose diplomats helped draft the August 11 U.N. Security Council resolution on the peacekeepers, said a force of 15,000 was "completely excessive".
Annan insisted in Brussels that 15,000 remained the U.N.'s "working figure" and added: "We will put in the men and assets required to get the job done -- no more, no less."
The U.N.-backed truce took effect on August 14 after 34 days of fighting which killed nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mainly soldiers.
Some 150 French soldiers arrived by ship in Lebanon's southern port of Naqoura on Friday to join 50 extra troops already sent as part of France's initial offer of 200.
Israel wants the beefed-up U.N. force to move to the border before it withdraws fully from Lebanon. It also has vowed to keep its partial sea and air blockade on Lebanon until the force deploys on the Syrian border to prevent Hizbollah from rearming.
Syria has threatened to close the border -- Lebanon's only land outlet -- if U.N. troops are sent there.
In a sharp public rebuke for failing to deliver a fatal blow to Hizbollah, a poll published on Friday showed 63 percent of Israelis want Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign.
The Yedioth Aronoth poll showed for the first time a majority favored Olmert quitting, along with a surge in support for the rightwing Likud party and its leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
(Additional reporting by William Schomberg, Darren Ennis, David Lawsky and Marcin Grajwski in Brussels and from Jerusalem, Ankara, Paris and Beirut bureaus)
EU nations to provide core of Lebanon force
By Mark John
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European nations agreed on Friday to offer more than half the troops for an expanded United Nations peacekeeping contingent in Lebanon.
U.N. chief Kofi Annan hailed the move as creating the backbone of a credible force, which could total up to 15,000 troops, even though EU officials warned it could be months before its full deployment.
Annan called for the first troops to arrive in days to begin policing a fragile truce between Israel and Hizbollah and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said the Italian contingent could leave as soon as Tuesday.
"When you put it all together, Europe is providing the backbone to the force...We can now begin to put together a credible force that the (U.N.) Security Council authorized," he said after an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers.
"We should deploy, I hope, within the next few days, not the next few weeks," he told a news conference.
Clarifying doubts over the leadership of the mission, Annan said he had asked France, who will contribute 2,000 troops, to continue to lead UNIFIL until February 2007. The leadership would then pass to Italy, which has pledged up to 3,000 soldiers
European countries feared getting caught in the crossfire of any fresh hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas and wanted assurances they would operate under robust enough rules to be able to defend themselves, diplomats said.
"The significant move of the week was Annan coming here," said one envoy.
MUSLIM COMMITMENTS
Aside from Italy and France, diplomats at the Brussels meeting said Spain was ready to send up to 1,200 troops.
Poland said it was prepared to contribute about 500 troops, Belgium offered up to 400 and current EU president Finland said it was readying a company of up to 250.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Europe's total contribution would be between 6,500 and 7,000, while Ireland's Dermot Ahern put it as high as 9,000 and Italy's Massimo d'Alema at as many as 10,000.
U.N. officials want a strong European contingent alongside a sizeable Muslim component in the expanded UNIFIL force, which is to work with 15,000 Lebanese troops being deployed in the south.
Annan said Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh had offered troops, and that he was in contact with Turkey over its role.
Highlighting divisions in the large Muslim country over the issue, Turkey's president said he opposed any role.
"Sending soldiers is not our responsibility. I'm against it," private CNN Turk television quoted Ahmet Necdet Sezer as saying. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), on the other hand, is known to favor sending troops.
FRANCE PERPLEXED
French President Jacques Chirac, whose diplomats helped draft the August 11 U.N. Security Council resolution on the peacekeepers, said a force of 15,000 was "completely excessive".
Annan insisted in Brussels that 15,000 remained the U.N.'s "working figure" and added: "We will put in the men and assets required to get the job done -- no more, no less."
The U.N.-backed truce took effect on August 14 after 34 days of fighting which killed nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 157 Israelis, mainly soldiers.
Some 150 French soldiers arrived by ship in Lebanon's southern port of Naqoura on Friday to join 50 extra troops already sent as part of France's initial offer of 200.
Israel wants the beefed-up U.N. force to move to the border before it withdraws fully from Lebanon. It also has vowed to keep its partial sea and air blockade on Lebanon until the force deploys on the Syrian border to prevent Hizbollah from rearming.
Syria has threatened to close the border -- Lebanon's only land outlet -- if U.N. troops are sent there.
In a sharp public rebuke for failing to deliver a fatal blow to Hizbollah, a poll published on Friday showed 63 percent of Israelis want Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign.
The Yedioth Aronoth poll showed for the first time a majority favored Olmert quitting, along with a surge in support for the rightwing Likud party and its leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
(Additional reporting by William Schomberg, Darren Ennis, David Lawsky and Marcin Grajwski in Brussels and from Jerusalem, Ankara, Paris and Beirut bureaus)