BELGIUM: European Parliament calls for clear mandate for troops preparing to reinforce UN forces in Lebanon on eve of crucial FM meeting

The European Parliament has called for a clear mandate for troops member countries plan to send to Lebanon to try and restore and maintain peace during an extraordinary meeting in Brussels on Thursday (August 24, 2006), on the eve of a crucial meeting of foreign ministers. The parliamentarians met to discuss their country's contribution to beefed up UNIFIL force to police the ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah guerillas. European Parliament President Josep Borrell said the most important issue was to find a negotiated path towards peace and to steer away from military solution in Lebanon. He also reminded the parliament of the need to focus its attention on the needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. "There is a problem of re-construction but there is above all a problem of construction. We can re-construct what was destroyed but we need to find a way of rebuilding a durable peace which cannot come from a military solution but from political negotiations based upon new foundations. The tragic events in Qanaa touched public opinion but what is happening in Lebanon should not divert our attention and make us forget what is happening in Gaza and what is happening in the occupied Palestinian territories," Borrell said. The United Nations agencies said on Thursday that most Lebanese displaced by the war have returned to their villages but many remain homeless because their houses are destroyed or littered with unexploded bombs. They also warned of a possible food crisis because of the conflict's impact on local harvests but said it would reduce an appeal for emergency funds made at the start of the war. Lebanon's government has said 97 percent of the 900,000 to one million people who fled fighting between Israel and Hizbollah had returned to their towns following an Aug. 14 truce. But the UNHCR refugee agency in hard-hit south Lebanon, where many villages were severely damaged by Israeli ground and air attacks, said a third had found their homes uninhabitable. The President of the Hellenic Parliament Anna Benaki Psarouda said in Brussels that the European Union needed to address urgently and efficiently the needs of the displaced people as well as provide health care to those most in need. "The international community's contribution to helping restore normality in the day to day life of the Lebanese is crucially important and must be direct and efficient. There are many areas in which we can contribute and help to defuse the situation. Starting by sending humanitarian aid without hindrance until the furnishing of materials for reconstruction in devastated areas.. Its necessary to contribute to the medical care of the wounded, refugees and displaced peoples until they can return home," Psarouda said. Italy's Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema expects French President Jacques Chirac to announce a "substantial increase" in France's contribution to a U.N. force for Lebanon later on Thursday. "The latest news is that tonight Chirac should announce a substantial increase," D'Alema said at a joint news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Rome. Chirac is due to make a national broadcast on Lebanon at 1800 GMT. France led calls for a robust international force to police a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas and has been heavily criticised for pledging only an extra 200 soldiers to bolster an existing U.N. force. Italy, which is expected to lead the force authorised by the United Nations to total 15,000, has committed up to 3,000 troops and has called a meeting of European Union foreign ministers on Friday to press for a greater commitment from other countries. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier indicated that European pledges of troops for the U.N. force in Lebanon could still increase. Germany has ruled out sending ground troops to the Middle East but would send naval forces to help patrol Lebanese waters. The Lebanese government is in the process of deploying 15,000 soldiers to the south to work alongside a similar number of U.N. peacekeeping troops. Spain's European Socialist Party member Carlos Carnero Gonzales said it was crucial these troops had a clear mandate. Whilst French Socialist MEP Beatrice Patrie said that it must be made clear that the European forces and UNIFIL should not be expected to disarm Hizbollah. "I think that France, Italy and my own country of Spain, have already expressed their intention to take part, with determination, in this force. Now, provided that force has a clear mandate and also the mandate must be respected by all the parties," Carnero Gonzales said. "The question which remains I would say hanging, is that is it UNIFIL's mission to finish the job started by Israel and to disarm Hizbollah. France believes that is not UNIFIL's mission," Patrie said. European Union president Finland said on Thursday it hoped to see initial U.N. peacekeeping reinforcements arrive in Lebanon within a week but cautioned that it could take months for all new troops to deploy. Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said that although the situation in southern Lebanon has become more stable, it remained precarious and that it was crucial for the EU to get the bulk of its troop reinforcements there quickly.

ITN Source | August 26, 2006

Tags:. .stable. .alongside. .urgently. .occupied. .cautioned