Lebanon OKs Peacekeeping Force Once Israel Pulls Out

In a decision that offered some hope for a tranquil Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in coming weeks, Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss announced Wednesday that his country will permit U.N. peacekeeping troops to fill the vacuum left by Israel.

Hoss’ statement, issued to reporters here, removed one key piece of uncertainty surrounding Israel’s plan to unilaterally withdraw from its self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon. Israel has said it will be out of Lebanon by July 7.

But in the absence of a formal agreement among all three states involved in southern Lebanon--Israel, Lebanon and its power broker Syria--questions persisted about whether the U.N. “blue helmets” alone will be enough to prevent an outbreak of renewed fighting.

Ever since Israel announced its intention last month to leave Lebanon without first reaching agreement with Syria, there have been worries that Syria might give either the militant Islamic Hezbollah guerrillas or radical Palestinian groups a green light to commence firing rockets at northern Israel from behind Lebanon’s international borders after the pullout.

Israel already has put Lebanon and Syria on notice that if that occurs, there will be massive retaliation, a scenario that some analysts here believe could easily explode into full-scale fighting.

Hoss sought to play down those fears. He said that Lebanon welcomes the Israeli withdrawal and that people should not be too pessimistic that it will end in more bloodshed.

He appeared to be trying to reverse a widely held impression here that the Lebanese government either has mixed feelings about the withdrawal or didn’t know how to respond when Israel announced its plans.

The Israeli pullback is a victory for Lebanon, Hoss said, adding that the Lebanese people ought to be “joyful.” No one, he said, should “wallow in unjustifiable pessimism and transform our victory against Israel into a defeat, and its defeat into a victory.”

Hoss made clear that U.N. troops will be able to deploy to the border, but he made no mention of when, or if, the Lebanese army would also move onto the vacated territory. Israel is eager for Lebanon to take responsibility for the land to reduce the ability of irregular anti-Israeli forces such as Hezbollah to launch attacks.

Moving into the vacated Israeli positions will be members of the U.N. Interim Force, or UNIFIL, a contingent of foreign troops that has been in Lebanon since Israel’s 1978 invasion. Its original mandate was to provide security and facilitate an Israeli pullback from Lebanon as required under U.N. Security Council Resolution 425, which was enacted that year.

The force now consists of 4,500 troops from nine countries, but diplomatic discussions are underway about increasing its numbers in advance of the pullout.

If the Israelis withdraw according to the present scenario, UNIFIL would be expected to put its troops on the Lebanese side of the border, both to make sure that the Israeli withdrawal was complete and to help Lebanon restore its control of the territory.

But a key question is whether Hezbollah will help to keep the peace. Most of the popular credit in Lebanon for the Israeli withdrawal has gone to Hezbollah, which has spearheaded a slow war of attrition against Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

On Wednesday, Hussein Haj Hassan, a Hezbollah member of parliament, said in an interview that he couldn’t guarantee that Hezbollah will not carry out attacks on Israel after the withdrawal.

He also appeared skeptical that the U.N. troops would be able to maintain calm along the Israeli-Lebanese border given what he said was a failed track record to date, including an Israeli invasion in 1982.

“We will see what will develop,” he said. “Who has said that the resistance will end?”

Meanwhile, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, in a speech April 15, appeared to be laying down reasons why continued fighting with Israel could be justified even after the Israelis withdraw from all Lebanese territory.

For instance, Nasrallah contended, if Israel withdraws without releasing all of its Lebanese detainees, or without paying damages to Lebanese families who have suffered losses over the years, or without ceasing its routine incursions into Lebanese territorial waters and airspace, Hezbollah would be justified to go on fighting.