Fed: Downer virtually rules out troops for Lebanon

AAP General News (Australia)
08-17-2006
Fed: Downer virtually rules out troops for Lebanon

CANBERRA, Aug 17 AAP - Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has all but ruled out sending
troops to join a peacekeeping force bound for southern Lebanon.

The United Nations Security Council last week adopted a resolution calling for a truce
and authorising up to 13,000 troops to augment its existing 2,000-strong UNIFIL force
now in Lebanon.

The United States has urged Australia to be part of the new mission, and the Howard
government has previously said it would consider the request.

Mr Downer has previously said Australia would make only a small contribution to the
force if it made any contribution at all but he went a step further today.

"We do have a very small number of people already in UNIFIL and in the truce supervision
organisation there as well, but I think in total it's around 12," he told ABC Radio.

"I think it's highly unlikely we'll send any more."

Mr Downer said Australia's military was not overstretched by missions in Iraq, Afghanistan,
East Timor and the Solomon Islands, but the defence force was "significantly deployed".

"We wouldn't want to put them in a position where they were too stretched," he said.

"That's obviously one consideration, to make sure that we pace ourselves and we can
do all the jobs we are doing effectively without overreaching."

He predicted a long debate over the peacekeeping force's mandate.

A sticking point could be whether UNIFIL should disarm Hizbollah guerrillas who fought
an Israeli onslaught for 34 days until a truce took hold on Monday.

"On my reading of the Security Council resolution 1701, it won't be disarming Hizbollah
and if that is the case I think it could be a difficult situation for UNIFIL," Mr Downer
said.

"That's not the reason that we won't participate in it, but I think it's unlikely we'll
be able to participate because we won't have the right sort of capability to really give
it additional strength.

"Any contribution we would make would simply be totemic and we may as well let others
do the job."

UNIFIL, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, was created in 1978 to confirm
Israel's withdrawal from its neighbour and restore security.

AAP rp/srp/de

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