MICHELE NORRIS, host:
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said today that the expanded peacekeeping force for Lebanon needs to arrive as quickly as possible. One U.N. official said some troops could arrive in 10 to 15 days. And while getting the force approved at the U.N. was difficult, that may have been the easy part.
As NPR's Tom Gjelten reports, several governments say they're open to participating, but they also worry whether the operation will be effective.
TOM GJELTEN reporting:
Much of the debate over the new peacekeeping operation centered on how well-armed it would be and how much force it could use. The current U.N. mission in Lebanon consists of just 2,000 poorly armed peacekeepers. No one in the country has been able to enforce U.N. Resolution 1559, which was passed two years ago and called for the disarmament of all militia forces in the country, notably Hezbollah.
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said today that objective of disarming Hezbollah is still relevant.
Mr. JOHN BOLTON (U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations): We want to take advantage of this crisis to proceed more fully with the implementation of 1559. And what that has to mean is the effective control from a security point of view over southern Lebanon by the government of Lebanon. And that means to prevent armed Hezbollah from reappearing.
GJELTEN: If standing up to Hezbollah will be the standard by which this peacekeeping mission is judged, however, it's in trouble already. Hezbollah says it won't disarm on its own and the Lebanese government yesterday declared it has no intention of forcing it to do so. Fawaz Gerges of Sarah Lawrence University says disarming Hezbollah would mean civil war in Lebanon.
Mr. FAWAZ GERGES (Sarah Lawrence University): The Lebanese security force that will be responsible for security and order in southern Lebanon will not use force against Hezbollah. Make no doubt about it.
GJELTEN: Not only is Hezbollah a key political player in Lebanon, represented in the Lebanese government, it's armed wing, Gerges says, is militarily stronger than the Lebanese army. The international component of the peacekeeping force, meanwhile, is expected to be led by France. But Dominique Moisi of the Institute for International Relations in Paris says the French government is not inclined to take on Hezbollah either.
Mr. DOMINIQUE MOISI (Institute for International Relations, Paris): Everybody's counting on the French, but the French are no more enthusiastic than any other group to confront the risk of being shot at by the Hezbollah or the Israeli, more or less at the same time.
GJELTEN: The Lebanese government is meanwhile urging Turkey to contribute to a peacekeeping force and the Turkish government says it's interested, but Bulen Paliraza(ph) of the Center for Strategic and International Studies says the Turkish military right now might prefer to send troops into northern Iraq to deal with Kurdish militants based over the border there.
Mr. BULEN PALIRAZA (Center for Strategic and International Studies): For Turkey to intervene in Lebanon and to assume important responsibilities without dealing with the possibility of military intervention in Iraq is I think going to be difficult.
GJELTEN: For their part, U.S. officials say any American role in an international force will be limited to logistical support. That did not keep the Bush administration today from advising other countries that a delay of some months in assembling the force would not be acceptable.
Analysts say that once deployed the peacekeepers are likely to have all they can handle just trying to maintain a buffer zone along the Lebanese border while the parties seek a political settlement of the conflict.
Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
