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UN Lebanon Force Could Start Deploying in 7-10 Days

Reuters – NYT Saturday 12 August 2006

Jerusalem – The United Nations expects Israel’s ground offensive to wind down within 48 hours and an expanded international force to begin deploying in southern Lebanon in a week to 10 days, the U.N.’s envoy said on Saturday.

“We are not starting from zero,” Alvaro de Soto, the U.N. special envoy for the Middle East peace process, said of preparations for an international force.

“We have building blocks in place as part of stand-by arrangements with a number of countries with earmarked contingents,” he told Reuters.

The resolution approved by the U.N. Security Council on Friday calls for a “full cessation of hostilities” and authorizes up to 15,000 U.N. troops to move in to enforce a ceasefire.

The resolution says Hizbollah must halt all attacks and Israel must stop “all offensive military operations.”


De Soto said Israel’s offensive was in its “last throes” and should wrap up in one to two days. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has backed the U.N. resolution, plans to put it to a vote of his cabinet on Sunday, officials said.

A formal, verifiable ceasefire could be reached “within a week or so,” allowing the deployment of Lebanese troops along with an expanded U.N. force, de Soto said.

De Soto and other Western diplomats said U.N. troops were likely to start moving into southern Lebanon in about 10 days, barring another escalation in fighting.

Israel expects a ceasefire to take effect by Monday, the Ynet news web site reported, quoting sources in Olmert’s office.

Israeli officials say the U.N.’s resolution will allow the army to press ahead with “defensive” operations, including attacks on Hizbollah rocket launchers and arms convoys.

De Soto said Israel will have a right to continue to defend itself once offensive operations end. But he said Israel must be mindful that its actions comply with the resolution.

“The Security Council will take very seriously any action in defiance of it,” de Soto said. “We fully expect full compliance.”

De Soto said the United Nations has already lined up several governments to send troops to join the expanded U.N. force.

The Security Council empowered the force, known as UNIFIL, to “take all necessary action” needed to perform its duties.

France is expected to lead the force. Western diplomats said Italy, Spain and Turkey were expected to send contingents.

Although the resolution authorizes 15,000 international troops, a senior diplomat said: “It may be difficult to get them. Forces for this kind of operation aren’t easy to come by.”

Information

This entry was posted on 13 August, 2006 by in Empire, War and Terror, Hegemon-watch, International Law, Israel, Israel Watch, Lebanon, UN.

Timely Reminders

"Those who crusade, not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes perceptibly worse than what it was, before the crusade began. By thinking primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions for evil to manifest itself."
-- Aldous Huxley

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-- Diane DiPrima, "Rant", from Pieces of a Song.

"It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there"
-- William Carlos Williams, "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower"


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