The New York Times reported today that governments in the region have conveyed to Kofi Annan that the “single biggest impediment to beginning the restoration of Lebanon” is the Israeli blockade. The reason the Israelis give for not lifting it is the fact that they don’t see the UN force that is currently deployed as capable of filling the vacuum they will leave behind. Most noticeably the German fleet that is supposed to patrol the shores of Lebanon is set to arrive two weeks from now.
But Kofi has come up with a plan,
I'm just wondering why Seniora is stonewalling on the formal authorization of the German commitment to fulfilling resolution 1701. Why this posturing over semantics?Mr. Siniora and Ehud Olmert...have disagreed on the sequence of events, Mr. Annan said. Mr. Siniora wants Israel to end its blockade before he authorizes the German assignment, Mr. Annan said. But he said Mr. Olmert had told him Israel would lift the blockade only after word that the Germans were officially committed.
- Under the plan, Mr. Chirac's announcement would bring an immediate dispatch of French, Italian and Greek vessels to patrol for two weeks, the time needed for a promised German fleet to arrive.
- The second step is a letter to Mr. Annan from Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, formally authorizing the Germans to take up their positions off Lebanon.
- The third and final step that Mr. Annan hopes for is an announcement that Israel will lift the blockade.
4 comments:
The Lebanese gov is playing with fire...some facts & the internal discussion in Germany concerning the German fleet:
1) The ships, once fully mobilized, would take about 14 days to arrive off the Lebanese shore, hence the time-span. Also, the contingent would probably contain several Navy Tonados (maritime recon version) which would have to be re-located to Cyprus, which also would take some time.
2) The fleet can and will only set sail once the Lebanese governement has unconditionally requested its deployment. This is currently not the case.
3) The German cabinet and the government is getting a lot of heat internally for having offered the deployment of the fleet. The long time Lebanon took to announce its decision has caused a lot of irritation in Berlin, since the deployment's opponents take this as support for their position.
4) As far as I am informed, there is no concrete resolution or agreement based upon a resolution defining the ROEs of the mission. The German fleet would not belong to the UNIFIL contingent, but be under a different command. The ships also won't set sail if their ROEs agreed upon would prevent any serious attempt at preventing weapon smuggle of the Lebanese coast, e.g. only in the 8-mile zone.
Anyway, the time-window for a deployment of German forces in a way which would not be mere propaganda but could actually serve a sensible purpose is shrinking fast.
Finally, here's a little something to make you think:
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1208
Far from fulfilling UNSC 1701, these actions only make sense if Siniora is trying to break it and return to the pre-July situation of Lebanon dictating to the U.N. what actions U.N. forces may or may not take. That meant UNIFIL not disarming Hezbollah in compliance with UNSC 1559.
In my judgement, to maintain the peace and fulfill UNSC 1701 Siniora needs to demonstrate a political defeat to Hezbollah and show that the Lebanese government cannot simply violate UNSC resolutions at will as before. Otherwise, he cannot offer any excuse to Hezbollah as to why they cannot safely re-arm, even in the midst of heavily-armed U.N. peacekeeping troops .
yeah - sherri - whats your take on the abidance by thehostage exchange requirements.. not hearing a peep out of you about the release of israeli hostages..
hmm im sure its not because u are one-sided.. ;)
wishing us peace sooner rather than later..
lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
sherri
you have no idea what we want.. who ever appointed you to be our spokesperson.. what sort of perverted hubris is this?
i think sherrigate has gone as far as it needs..
lirun
telaviv
www.emspeace.blogspot.com
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