Israel Opposes Redeployment of U.N. Force
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JERUSALEM — Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said Wednesday that Israel is opposed to the redeployment of U.N. troops to positions along its border with Lebanon.
“We don’t demand (U.N. troop) presence; we don’t demand their evacuation. But we don’t agree to a change in deployment from what it has been for the past eight years,” Rabin told reporters at Parliament.
A U.N. Security Council resolution, adopted Tuesday on a 14-0 vote, with the United States abstaining, called for moving the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) up to the Israeli border.
It also said that forces not accepted by Lebanese authorities--an apparent reference to the Israelis--should leave south Lebanon.
Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Wednesday that the U.N. troop strength was insufficient to secure both the border and the buffer zone, which Israel established in Lebanon after withdrawing the bulk of its soldiers from that country in June, 1985.
“I hope the Security Council will come to terms with reality. . . . More troops are necessary, and more are not available,” Peres told reporters.
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