Bush Welcomes France's Troop Commitment to U.N. Lebanon Force
25 August 2006
French President Jacques Chirac announces France will send 2,000 troops
Washington – President Bush welcomed the August 24 announcement by French President Jacques Chirac that France will be sending 2,000 troops to participate in the U.N. peacekeeping operation in southern Lebanon.
“This is an important step towards finalizing preparations to deploy the United Nations Interim Force of Lebanon,” Bush said in an August 24 statement.
U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, which brought an end to the month-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, calls for a 15,000-troop international force to help secure southern Lebanon alongside 15,000 troops from the Lebanese army. France, which helped draft the resolution, initially indicated that it would send a significant contingent to support the U.N. mission but refused to commit until it received assurances that the international force would be authorized to open fire in self-defense and to protect civilians from hostile forces.
The international troops will reinforce the existing U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), a 28-year-old monitoring force that currently has about 2,000 troops in the area.
Bush also welcomed “the significant pledges from Italy and our other important allies.” Italy has said it is willing to send as many as 3,000 troops. Bush encouraged other countries to contribute to the force as well.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who met with European foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium, August 25 to solicit additional troop contributions, announced later that “more than half the force has been pledged today.”
“The firm commitments we have received from several governments in the last few days have given me confidence that we can begin to put together the kind of force that the Security Council has authorized,” Annan told reporters.
Bush indicated his desire to see a rapid deployment of the U.N. force “to help Lebanon's legitimate armed forces restore the sovereignty of its democratic government throughout the country and stop Hezbollah from acting as a state within a state.”
The French general who currently commands UNIFIL troops in Lebanon will retain his position until his term expires in February 2007. Afterward, the command will pass to an Italian commander.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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