1,600 more French soldiers to be sent to Lebanon

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Thursday August 24, 2006

Paris- French President Jacques Chirac said late Thursday that 1,600 additional French soldiers would be deployed to reinforce the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. Speaking on national television, Chirac said he had received sufficient guarantees from the UN and from Israel and Lebanon to ensure that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) could operate at "optimum efficiency and safety."

When deployed, the new contingent will bring the number of French soldiers in UNIFIL to 2,000.

Chirac had been widely criticized for announcing a deployment of only 200 additional soldiers to Lebanon following the cessation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel earlier this month.

However, the French president said he wanted to have the UN peacekeeping mission more precisely defined before deploying additional soldiers.

On Thursday, he said that "the conditions that France had demanded (for deployment of its soldiers) have been fulfilled."

Chirac also said that "France was ready to continue to command, if the UN wishes," the UNIFIL force. Earlier this month, Israel had asked Italy to head the UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, and Rome said it was willing to do so.

Chirac's announcement came one day before EU foreign ministers were to meet in Brussels with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to decide on the contribution of various EU nations to UNIFIL.

Earlier Thursday, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora had called on Paris to deploy "new troops" to beef up the UN peacekeeping force.

"I will not deny the fact that the people here expected many more than 400 French soldiers," Seniora told Monaco's RMC radio. "The Lebanese want a strong French presence, which would stimulate the other contributing countries to do the same."

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur