UN won’t disarm Hezbollah

BEIRUT – The French general commanding UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon said on Monday his troops would not intervene to disarm Hezbollah, even as French President Jacques Chirac said the militant group should not keep a military wing.

Major-General Alain Pelligrini told reporters that the main task of his UN force, known as UNIFIL, was to ensure that southern Lebanon could not be used as a base for attacks on Israel. “The disarmament of Hezbollah is not the business of UNIFIL.This is a strictly Lebanese affair, which should be resolved at a national level,” he said.Pelligrini’s frank assessment underscored the constraints facing the beefed-up UN mission despite a tougher mandate and far greater manpower.It came as France’s defence minister Michele Alliot-Marie visited Lebanon with hundreds of French soldiers about to deploy to the south where they will join the UN force that is tasked with maintaining the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.In Paris, Chirac said that “no country can live if a part of its territory escapes the authority of its government.”It is totally normal there be a wing that expresses politically what the Hezbollah think ….What is questionable, is to express this by force, by armed militias,” the French leader said in an interview on Europe-1 radio.UN peacekeepers for the first time on Monday began checking security measures on Lebanon’s border with Syria, part of efforts to help the Lebanese army in monitoring sea and land borders to prevent arms shipments to Hezbollah.The bulk of the 15 000-strong UN force is deploying in the south, and France is contributing the second-largest contingent at 2 000 troops, until early next year when Italy is to take over.Nampa-AP”The disarmament of Hezbollah is not the business of UNIFIL.This is a strictly Lebanese affair, which should be resolved at a national level,” he said.Pelligrini’s frank assessment underscored the constraints facing the beefed-up UN mission despite a tougher mandate and far greater manpower.It came as France’s defence minister Michele Alliot-Marie visited Lebanon with hundreds of French soldiers about to deploy to the south where they will join the UN force that is tasked with maintaining the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.In Paris, Chirac said that “no country can live if a part of its territory escapes the authority of its government.”It is totally normal there be a wing that expresses politically what the Hezbollah think ….What is questionable, is to express this by force, by armed militias,” the French leader said in an interview on Europe-1 radio.UN peacekeepers for the first time on Monday began checking security measures on Lebanon’s border with Syria, part of efforts to help the Lebanese army in monitoring sea and land borders to prevent arms shipments to Hezbollah.The bulk of the 15 000-strong UN force is deploying in the south, and France is contributing the second-largest contingent at 2 000 troops, until early next year when Italy is to take over.Nampa-AP