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France Boycotts UN Meeting after

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Associated Press
August 2, 2006

The United Nations announced that countries willing to contribute troops to help stabilize south Lebanon will meet after all. But France, which has been mentioned as a possible leader of a peacekeeping force, said it will not attend because the meeting is premature. The meeting was scrapped Monday after France said there was no point in talking about peacekeepers with the war continuing between Israeli troops and Hizbullah and no political settlement.


Secretary-General Kofi Annan emerged from a breakfast Tuesday with the ambassadors from the five permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. -- with the announcement that the troop contributors meeting would be held on Thursday. But France still believes it is too early to talk about troops for a new force and will not attend, a spokesman for France's U.N. Mission said late Tuesday. The reason for France's opposition remains unchanged, the spokesman said.

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said Monday that "France is in favor of setting up an international force to implement a political settlement. It is important to have this political settlement before having the force deployed. So it is premature to have such a meeting. It's a question of timing."

France wants an immediate halt to fighting between Israel and Hizbullah to pave the way for a wider peace. But the United States, Israel's closest ally, wants any cease-fire to be part of a package of simultaneous steps, including the deployment of peacekeepers. Annan urged key governments debating Lebanon's future to put aside their differences to solve the conflict. He wants nations to lay the groundwork for a force, apparently so it can be deployed as quickly as possible once a political framework to end the fighting in Lebanon is settled.

"He did ask them to set those differences aside and move along quickly on the question of a mandate for the force and the formation of the force, and who's going to be able to give what and which countries will be able to contribute," his spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.

Despite the meeting, diplomats acknowledge that sharp differences remain. The U.S. objects to large segments of a French-proposed draft Security Council resolution calling for the creation of a multinational peacekeeping force and a new buffer zone with no Israeli troops or Hizbullah fighters -- but only after a halt in fighting. The United States wants any force to help the Lebanese army extend its authority throughout southern Lebanon, which is now under Hizbullah's control, and disarm the group.

Israel also has strong objections that must be overcome. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that it was not in Israel's interest to agree to an immediate cease-fire because every day of fighting weakens Hizbullah, and Israeli Cabinet members said the offensive would continue for 10 days to two weeks. A visit to New York by U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for a meeting of foreign ministers that had been expected this week now seems less likely, though many officials including Rice have said they are still hopeful that a resolution can be agreed to soon. "We're working very closely with our friends and allies, in particular with the French, on these elements and how these elements fit together, what kind of sequencing there might be, and exactly what are the details," U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The disagreements have been so strong that the Security Council, for example, has so far been able only to issue two relatively weak statements about specific incidents -- the killing of four U.N. observers in an Israeli air raid and the Israeli airstrike that killed more than 60 people in the town of Qana. It has refrained so far from taking any broader political action, which has led to a roiling sense of resentment and anger in the Middle East.

France, Italy, Germany, Ireland and Turkey have said they are considering joining a multinational force. Diplomats in the continent's other capitals are discussing whether to add their countries to the roster. U.S. President George Bush has made clear he does not intend to contribute U.S. ground troops to an international force, telling Miami television station WPLG, "Most people understand that we're committed elsewhere."

The council will also have to overcome a central disagreement between Israel and Lebanon. Israel wants a strong, armed force with a mandate to confront fighters, and Israeli Cabinet Minister Haim Ramon reiterated Tuesday that Israel seeks NATO involvement. Lebanon, however, wants an expansion of the current U.N. peacekeeping force, deployed in south Lebanon since 1978 which Israel dismisses as ineffective.

Another element to the discussion is finding someone to lead the international force. Regardless of its mandate -- whether under the auspices of the U.N. or not -- it will need one nation at its center leading the way. "We hope we can move forward to get a resolution under discussion in the council very quickly," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said. "There's a real difference of perception on the ground of what conditions are needed before a cessation of hostilities."


More Information on the Security Council
More Information on Lebanon
More Information on UN Involvement in Israel and Palestine
More Information on Israel, Palestine, and the Occupied Territories

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FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.