BRUSSELS, 26 August 2006 — UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday he could raise 15,000 troops for a United Nations peace force in Lebanon as European nations overcame their reluctance to send soldiers. After Italy pledged up to 3,000 troops and France 2,000, diplomats at an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels said Spain was ready to send up to 1,200 troops and Poland a slightly smaller contingent.
Belgium offered up to 400 soldiers, and diplomats said current EU president Finland was readying a deployment of 200.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Europe’s total contribution would be between 6,500 and 7,000 troops. Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said it would be 8,000 to 9,000. That would make the Europeans the core of the UN force.
Asked before meeting European foreign ministers whether he expected to be able to raise all the troops he sought to police a fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah, Annan said: “Not today, but I will get the 15,000.” But even as deployments began, French President Jacques Chirac, whose diplomats helped draft the Aug. 11 UN Security Council resolution that authorized up to 15,000 peacekeepers to deploy in Lebanon, said that number was “completely excessive.”
“It doesn’t really make sense. So what is the right number, 4,000, 5,000 or 6,000? I don’t know,” he told a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris.
UN officials want a strong European contingent alongside a sizable Muslim component in the expanded UNIFIL force, which is to work with 15,000 Lebanese troops being deployed in the south. Malaysia, Indonesia and Nepal have offered contingents, while Turkey and Bangladesh are considering doing so.
An EU source said Annan proposed at the EU foreign ministers’ meeting that France keep command of the UN force in Lebanon until February 2007, when Italy will take over. Chirac said Thursday that France, whose mandate to lead the UN force expires in January, could keep command of the enlarged UN mission.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he was confident EU nations would together be able to form the core of the force. “I don’t want to give specific numbers but it will be a sufficient number to make a core,” he told reporters.
EU countries feared getting caught in the crossfire of fresh hostilities and wanted assurances from Annan they would be able to defend themselves adequately, diplomats said.
Some 150 French soldiers arrived by ship in Lebanon’s southern port of Naqoura yesterday to join 50 extra troops already sent as part of France’s first offer of 200.
Chirac defended his initial reluctance to send a big UN contingent, saying he would have been attacked as a “mad dog” had he authorized higher numbers without first gaining clear assurances about their mission and right to self-defense.
Israel wants the beefed-up UN 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 Hezbollah from rearming.
Lebanon said Thursday it would seek technical assistance from Germany to help control the border with Syria, but had no immediate plans to ask UNIFIL to deploy soldiers there.
“Only the Lebanese Army is in charge of controlling the borders with Syria and it is out of the question to deploy the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL),” Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said.
