UN force won't stop smuggling of arms into Lebanon

United Nations peacekeepers will not be stationed along the Lebanese-Syrian border to prevent arms smuggling to Hezbollah except at Beirut's request, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Friday during the press conference at which the European Union announced it would contribute around 7,000 soldiers to the multinational force in South Lebanon.

According to Annan, Resolution 1701 does not require deploying the UN force to the border, unless the Lebanese government explicitly requests its help. Lebanon's interior minister declared yesterday that the Lebanese Army alone would patrol the border, but it could accept "technical assistance from UNIFIL."

Annan's announcement followed Syrian threats last week that it would view UN troop deployment as "a hostile act" and seal the border with Lebanon, which is likely to have grave economic consequences for Lebanon. Israel continues to demand UNIFIL's deployment along the border, to cut off arms shipments from Syria and Iran to Hezbollah. A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Jerusalem said yesterday that Israel would not lift the air blockade on Lebanon unless UNIFIL troops were deployed to monitor its borders. This topic is expected to be the focus of Annan's visits this week to Damascus and Tehran.

However, the multinational force faces several additional problems besides the issue of the Lebanon-Syria border. Over the past two weeks, Israel has objected to the inclusion of 1,000 soldiers from Malaysia, Indonesia and Bangladesh countries with a Muslim majority that do not recognize Israel. Annan, however, said that these countries had expressed "firm commitments" to contribute troops. "We will take the best peacekeepers where we can find them," he said. "We don't have pools sitting in barracks you can pick and choose from." Annan added there were ways of using such troops while taking Israel's concerns into consideration.

Haaretz

And when the IDF resumes, its going to be no more Mr Nice Guy. The key at this point is for Hezbollah and Syria to keep it zipped and chill until Israel pulls out. Considering how testoserone fueled the region is, I am doubtful that will happen.

I think it's in Lebanon's best interests to be able to defend itself in some capacity. I can certainly see how there may come a time when they would rather absorb Hezbollah into their army rather than disarm them completely. Or, simply let them operate as they have been.

Regardless of who's at fault in this conflict, Israel has shown aggression without discretion in Lebanon and they certainly need to be able to defend themselves in some capacity.

should copy what egypt and jordan and syria have done....all have peaceful borders with israel...and when incidents do happen as in the jordanian soldier shooting up israeli high school girls or when the egyptian soldier shot up israeli tourists....its kept to what it is....isolated incidents.

all lebanon has to do to safeguard their border is to guard it, and make sure no para military/terrorists group uses it to attack israel.

its that simple and the proof consists of israels other borders....only a fool or a willfully blind person ignores israels other peaceful borders and how they got that way.

rely on the good intentions of Israel that they won't be attacked.

And if it turns out that Israel's intentions aren't for peace, who is to protect them from Israel? The idea that Israel is seeking peace through war is preposterous. No one is buying it.

... there's no reason to believe they want war.

and from the reports coming out after the fact, their motives weren't limited to the return of 2 hostages. There was more going on behind the scenes than Israel cares to admit.

My point was, Israel should not be trusted to have the only strong army in the region as they've been shown to abuse that power.

Israel would be very happy to see the Lebanese army be the dominant force in the region...

for example, Israel could trust that the Lebanese army wouldn't:

a) kidnap it's soldiers
b) fire rockets at it's civilians
c) supply arms to groups like Hamas & Fatah

the objection is to Hezbollah's continued ignoring of international calls for it to disarm, and continued attacks on Israel.

honored while choosing to ignore many themselves. They have no ground to expect more from others than they do for themselves.