A senior United Nations envoy warned on Tuesday that it could take up to three months to deploy an international force in southern Lebanon and that the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah remained ”extremely fragile”.
Italy said on Tuesday that it would send up to 3 000 troops — the largest number offered by one country — but warned its soldiers would not be deployed unless Israel kept to the ceasefire commitment.
Terje Roed-Larsen, the UN envoy on Lebanon who was in Jerusalem for talks on Tuesday, said the ”security vacuum” in southern Lebanon would remain for some time. ”I think realistically, up to a point, you will have such a vacuum in Lebanon for the next two, three months,” he said. ”The situation is still extremely fragile … Unintended incidents can kick off renewed violence, which might escalate and spin out of control.”
Italy’s Foreign Minister, Massimo D’Alema, highlighted those concerns when he said his forces would not go in unless Israel respected the ceasefire. ”From Israel, we expect a renewed effort, this time truly binding, to respect the ceasefire,” he told La Repubblica newspaper. ”It’s fair to expect that Hezbollah put down their weapons, but we cannot send our troops to Lebanon if the [Israeli] army keeps shooting.”
The UN has already accused the Israelis of violating last week’s ceasefire when it launched a commando raid in the Bekaa Valley on Saturday. Israel said that under the terms of the ceasefire it is allowed to attack any efforts to rearm Hezbollah. Israel still has five brigades of troops — several thousand men — deployed in southern Lebanon and is enforcing a naval blockade and restrictions on air traffic.
Italy’s force would be a third of the total contribution from European nations. Other countries such as Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany are likely to send troops. Both Britain and the United States have said they will not send soldiers.
In Israel the political fall-out from the 34-day conflict continues to deepen. On Tuesday senior politicians threatened to break apart the coalition government after a row over meeting the cost of the war for Israel.
The Israeli government is already under pressure from army reservists who have demanded a major national inquiry as well as the resignations of the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and his Defence Minister, Amir Peretz.
Treasury officials say the cost in damage to buildings and lost income in northern Israel is double original estimates and stands at 6-billion shekels ($1,3-billion), Ha’aretz newspaper said. On Tuesday a parliamentary committee met to agree a 2bn-shekel budget cut to help meet that extra cost, but had to abandon the vote after two politicians from the Labour party — a key coalition member — refused to back it.
One leading political figure said the prime minister needed to reshuffle his Cabinet immediately. ”The meaning of this is that Israel has no coalition today. The Labour party isn’t a coalition partner you can rely on,” Avigdor Yitzhaki, the coalition whip in Olmert’s Kadima party, told Israel Radio. ”Therefore I will propose to the prime minister that he do an immediate reshuffle to restart the coalition process.”
Separately, Israel has freed and sent back to Lebanon five people who were captured during a helicopter commando raid on Baalbeck in Lebanon. The Israeli military said it believed the five were Hezbollah members. But it now appears that one was a local grocer who shared the name of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, although he is unrelated. – Guardian Unlimited Â