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Israel and Lebanon hail EU

Updated: 27/Aug/2006 17:58

EU foreign ministers, meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan Friday in Brussels, gave their full support to the swift implementation of the UN Security Council resolution 1701 and committed to forming the backbone of the enlarged Unifill operation in Lebanon, providing half of the expanded force.

Photo: EU Council

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JERUSALEM/BEIRUT (EJP)--- Israel and Lebanon have welcomed the announcement that the EU is to contribute up to 7,000 troops to a UN peacekeeping force to be deployed in southern Lebanon in order to enforce the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

"Israel congratulates European countries on their decision to send these contingents for the international force in Lebanon," Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, who met with the 25 EU foreign ministers in Brussels last Friday, said the EU agreed “to provide the backboneof the peacekeeping force in Lebanon”

Almost half of the 15,000-member Unifil (UN interim force in Lebanon) contingent will be made of European troops, mainly from France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Finland and Poland.

"This decision will greatly contribute to the full implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1701," Regev said.

Lebanese approval

Mohammed Chatah, a senior advisor to Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, told reporters that "the government is very satisfied with this positive and important decision ».

"Following some delay and some doubts, the backbone of the international force has now been determined and it will allow for the Israeli army to quickly withdraw from southern Lebanon and for the army to deploy in the region », Chatah said.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who is due in Lebanon on Monday and in Israel on Tuesday, to discuss the deployment of the force, said : "We may have a unique opportunity to transform the cessation of hostilities into a durable ceasefire.”