U.N. Still on the Hunt for Peacekeepers

U.N. diplomats worked behind the scenes Monday to secure troops for an expanded peacekeeping force in Lebanon as President Bush announced that the U.S. would introduce a resolution to clarify how the troops would interact with Hezbollah fighters.

“There will be another resolution coming out of the United Nations giving further instructions to the international force. First things first is to get the rules of engagement clear so that the force will be robust to help the Lebanese,” Bush said at a news conference in Washington, where he also pledged $230 million in aid for Lebanon.

French and American diplomats at the U.N. said countries should not wait for a resolution before offering troops to shore up the week-old truce.

“There’s no reason that it should hold up the deployment,” said John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., who confirmed that the U.S. would seek another resolution.

The 15,000 U.N. troops will be deployed with 15,000 soldiers from the Lebanese army, which is responsible for disarming Hezbollah. The draft rules of engagement appear to allow U.N. troops to defend themselves or to use force to stop arms smuggling or to disarm Hezbollah fighters if they meet resistance.

But military leaders want to be clear about who will lead the forces and how much the troops will be expected to engage Hezbollah fighters.

“It’s obviously a very dangerous situation,” Bolton said. “Countries that are trying to make this decision want to be sure that their troops will have the maximum opportunity to defend themselves.”

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi offered 2,000 troops Monday and said his country was ready to lead the force that would enter southern Lebanon as the Israeli army completed its withdrawal, U.N. officials said. Turkey, Spain and Finland are considering significant troop commitments.

Other European countries are hesitant to offer the peacekeepers called for in the Aug. 11 resolution that ended the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, concerned that the troops would be required to make peace instead of keep it.

France, a cosponsor of the resolution, had been expected to contribute thousands of troops and head the force, but it has offered only to double its 200 troops in the existing 2,000-member United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, leading other European countries to get cold feet. French diplomats said Monday that they did not support a second resolution to clarify the rules of engagement.

European Union diplomats are to meet Wednesday in Brussels to discuss the region’s troop commitments and who should lead the force, and France has called for a further meeting of foreign ministers Friday.

Israel has rejected substantial troop offers from Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, saying it did not want soldiers from countries that did not recognize Israel.

U.N. diplomats said Israel did not have the right to veto peacekeepers not deployed on its soil, especially when troops were so badly needed, but the U.N. did not want to create more political problems in the beleaguered region.

“We would want to deploy a force that is workable politically and militarily,” said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

On Monday, U.N. envoys Terje Roed-Larsen and Vijay Nambiar met in Israel with the nation’s senior leaders to discuss Israel’s position. They also had met with leaders in Lebanon.

“The government of Israel has no veto over the UNIFIL troop composition,” said a Western diplomat in Beirut, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We think this is horse-trading. They’re putting on some pressure to keep the number of troops from Muslim countries down and the number from European countries like Italy and France up.”

Times staff writers Borzou Daragahi and Bruce Wallace in Beirut contributed to this report.