France to head new Lebanon force

2006-08-17

Richard Moore

   "It is a tinder-dry environment where anybody can drop a
    spark and the flames go up again"
    Mark Malloch-Brown
    UN deputy chief

Original source URL:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4800053.stm

France to head new Lebanon force

France has agreed to head an expanded UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon until 
February, the defence minister says.

But the force must have a clear mandate and sufficient strength, Michele 
Alliot-Marie told French television.

Intense negotiations have been going on at the UN and in Beirut to build an 
advance force of up to 3,500 soldiers, to be deployed within two weeks.

Earlier Lebanon agreed to start moving its own 15,000-strong force south of the 
Litani River from Thursday.

The UN aim is to boost its limited existing force, Unifil, as soon as possible, 
enabling it to take over positions as Israel withdraws and the Lebanese troops 
move in.

    UN PEACEKEEPING FORCE
    Leader: France
    Likely contributors: Italy, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia
    Other possible contributors: Morocco, Spain, Belgium,
      Finland, Brunei, Germany, Portugal, Pakistan
    Current Unifil force: 2,000 troops from China, France,
      Ghana, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Ukraine

The multinational force would then later be brought up to the full strength - 
15,000 soldiers - set out in the UN ceasefire resolution passed on Friday.

But in agreeing to head the expanded force, Ms Alliot-Marie said it was vital to
clearly define its mission.

"When you send in a force and its mission is not precise enough, and its 
resources are not well adapted or large enough, that can turn into a 
catastrophe, including for the soldiers that we send," she told France-2 
television channel.

She did not say how many troops France would contribute.

Southern control

The Lebanese army's southern deployment, meanwhile, looks set to end decades in 
which Hezbollah was in effect virtually unchallenged in the area.

Israel's military objectives during the month-long conflict included pushing 
Hezbollah out of a 30km (18-mile) wide "buffer zone" between the Israeli border 
and the Litani.

The UN ceasefire resolution calls for the area south of the Litani to be free of
any "armed personnel, assets and weapons", except for the Lebanese and UN 
troops.

But the question of how and when Hezbollah will be disarmed or moved north - and
by whom - has not been resolved.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the army would have complete control 
of the region, and no weapons would be allowed outside the authority of the 
state - but the BBC's Nick Childs in Beirut says precisely what this means for 
Hezbollah fighters remains ambiguous.

In New York, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni accused Hezbollah of being in 
breach of the UN resolution, by failing to free two Israeli soldiers whose 
capture sparked the crisis.

"This is a moment of truth and maybe a test for the international community," 
she added.

"The resolution alone will do nothing unless we act with determination to ensure
that this time the international community's decisions are totally implemented."

Ms Livni met UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss implementing the 
resolution in full.

Mr Annan's deputy, Mark Malloch-Brown, said there was a real urgency in the 
situation.

"You have got a lot of trigger-happy people on both sides, a very high level of 
political distrust, a desire on both sides to make a point that they won and the
other side lost, and therefore it is a tinder-dry environment where anybody can 
drop a spark and the flames go up again," he said.

"So the sooner we've got full disarmament south of the Litani and full 
deployment of the Lebanese and ourselves the better."

In other developments:

€  A Lebanese general was ordered to be held for questioning after video images 
showed him drinking tea with Israelis who had taken over his barracks, AP news 
agency reported

€  Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz has set up a commission to investigate 
the way the military campaign was conducted, amid strong criticism of the 
strategy from within Israel

€  Rescue workers in the southern Lebanese town of Srifa recovered at least 30 
more bodies from destroyed buildings, officials said.

In southern Lebanon, aid agencies are trying to deliver badly needed food and 
medicine, while the UN has warned returnees of the danger from unexploded 
ordnance.

The UN says about 250,000 people have already returned, and aid officials 
estimate that another 500,000 are on the move.

The BBC's Kim Ghattas in the southern town of Tyre says in some villages many 
homes have been destroyed and there is no electricity or running water.

Some returning families are heading back to Beirut after finding they have 
nothing to go back to, our correspondent reports.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/4800053.stm

Published: 2006/08/16 20:55:59 GMT

© BBC MMVI
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