Bloomberg : Israel Says UN's Lebanon Force Needed to Help Curb Arms Traffic

Israel Says UN's Lebanon Force Needed to Help Curb Arms Traffic

By Gwen Ackerman and Maher Chmaytelli | August 24, 2006

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- UN troops must be posted in Lebanon along the border with Syria to keep Iranian arms from reaching Hezbollah, Israel said after Syria's government threatened to stop all traffic into Lebanon to protest such a deployment.

``It is in the utmost interest of the international community to prevent Iran from once again controlling southern Lebanon through the Hezbollah and to stop a resumption of arms streaming into Lebanon,'' Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said today. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad yesterday said the deployment of a UN force on the Lebanese side of the border would create ``a state of hostility'' between Syria and Lebanon.

The dispute over the extent of the UN deployment may delay Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon as called for in the cease-fire agreement that ended 33 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah on Aug. 14. The United Nations force is intended to move into southern Lebanon as Israeli troops move out, providing a buffer to prevent the militia from attacking northern Israel.

A shutdown of Syria's border posts would prevent imports of goods into eastern Lebanon, effectively isolating the country as it tries to recover from the conflict. Israel is maintaining an air and sea blockade of Lebanon.

The UN resolution leading to the cease-fire demands that Lebanon prevent the entry of arms, with assistance from the UN force if requested. Lebanese officials said they don't intend to ask for UN help along the border with Syria, Lebanon's pro-Syrian newspaper as-Safir reported. Lebanon may ask only for equipment to enhance its control of the land border, airspace and territorial waters, the paper said.

Syrian Position

Syria supports the use of UN forces in Lebanon, though not along the border the two countries share, Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said yesterday after talks in Helsinki with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moallem. ``If that's going to happen, they will close the border,'' said Tuomioja, in relating the Syrian position.

A UN deployment along the border ``would violate the sovereignty of Lebanon,'' Syria's al-Assad told Dubai Television. ``No state would accept the deployment of soldiers from other countries on its border unless it is in a state of war with the other state.''

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will meet European Union foreign ministers tomorrow to press them to join the UN force as Italy and France, who have already committed troops, said that its mission must be clarified. UN peacekeeping officials have said their troops won't be responsible for disarming Hezbollah. Annan also plans to travel to Iran and Syria, which are allied with the Shiite Muslim group.

UN, Lebanese Forces

A 15,000-strong UN contingent and a similar number of Lebanese soldiers will create the buffer zone in southern Lebanon. The UN is trying to create an initial 3,500-member force to be sent to Lebanon by Sept. 2.

Hezbollah, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Israel, was formed in 1982 and has been blamed for rocket attacks against Israel, bombings in Beirut in 1983 that killed 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French soldiers, and an attack on a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed 85 people. Hezbollah denies involvement in the bombings.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a phone call late yesterday that it was important that the UN resolution be implemented fully ``for the cease-fire to be preserved,'' his office said in a statement. He also said that quick deployment of the international force will allow Israel to remove its air and naval blockades on Lebanon.

A delay in deploying the forces will leave a ``security vacuum'' in southern Lebanon, UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed- Larsen said two days ago.

French Soldiers

France may announce that it will send hundreds more soldiers to Lebanon, Agence France-Presse reported today, citing unidentified officials.

Italy has said it is willing to lead the expanded UN force in Lebanon, known as Unifil, and may send 3,000 soldiers. France had come under criticism for initially offering 200 new soldiers, doubling its existing deployment.

``The rules of engagement are not clear'' for the UN mission, Lamberto Dini, the former Italian prime minister and current head of the Senate's foreign affairs committee, said yesterday. ``Many European countries still hesitate to become heavily involved.''

While Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Nepal have said they will send about 5,000 soldiers to Lebanon, the UN wants a significant number of European troops to ease Israeli anxiety about what would otherwise be a largely Muslim force.

The UN wants a second unit of 3,500 soldiers in Lebanon by Oct. 5 and 3,000 by Nov. 5.

``We sent the rules of engagement to member nations on Saturday and no one has come back with any specific questions,'' UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said yesterday in New York. ``The discussions have been about timeline, load capacity and other technical issues. The secretary general thinks the rules of engagement are just fine.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net ; Maher Chmaytelli in Beirut at mchmaytelli@bloomberg.net me;
Last Updated: August 24, 2006 08:25 EDT