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Italian troops arrive in Lebanon

Updated: 04/Sep/2006 17:54

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JERUSALEM (EJP)--- More than 140 Italian troops arrived in the Lebanese port city of Tyre at the weekend to join the international peacekeeping force in the region.

The Italian marines came following prime minister Romano Prodi’s decision to send forces to help maintain the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah.

There has been little fighting between the two sides since the United Nations passed its ceasefire resolution 1701 on 14 August. However Israeli army soldiers have yet to vacate southern Lebanon and prime minister Ehud Olmert said they would not do so until the promised 15,000 international soldiers are in place.

The Italians who arrived in helicopters and rubber boats from the aircraft carrier Garibaldi, all wore blue helmets. They are part of a reconnaissance team put in place in advance of the estimated 1,000 Italian troops expected to arrive in the coming days.

Italy is aiming to deploy about 2,450 ground soldiers in two phases over four months. IT will make up the largest contingent of the expanded United Nations UNIFIL force which will deploy along the Israeli-Lebanese.

New UNIFIL

The force will join with the current UNIFIL soldiers but, although they are only allowed to fire in self-defence and not attack, are expected to have much more robust rules of engagement than the previous group.

The French commander of UNIFIL, Major General Alain Pellegrini, said the new UN force known as UNIFIL II would mark a fresh start for the peacekeeping mission.

"We have to forget the previous UNIFIL, the previous UNIFIL is dead and the new one ... is strengthened with stronger rules of engagement," he told reporters in Tyre on Saturday. "We have more people, more equipment and we will have more possibility to use force to implement our mission.”

Pellegrini stressed that UN troops would not seek to disarm Hezbollah. "That is not my job," he said. "This is the job of the Lebanese army and we are here to assist the Lebanese army to do this job."

Spanish force approved

Meanwhile the Spanish cabinet has given the approval for the deployment of up to 1,100 peacekeeping troops for Lebanon, but must wait for approval from the parliament this week.
The decision was announced by deputy prime minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega following Friday’s a Cabinet meeting

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke with Spanish Prime Minister Luis Rodriguez Zapatero by telephone on Friday and thanked him for his government’s decision.

Answering critics, de la Vega told a news conference on Friday: “It is an operation that falls within international law. We are convinced that current circumstances support the proposal we are making because it is a peace operation in a country that has been destroyed."

Europe will lead the international force which is expected to include troops from Belgium, Poland, Finland and Portugal.