Lebanon Asks for Renewal of UNIFIl Mandate in South LebanonLebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud Wednesday said Lebanon has asked the United Nations to renew the term of its peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, the official NNA news agency reported.Hammoud said in a statement released on Wednesday that Lebanon is "very" concerned about the presence of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). He praising the role played by UNIFIL in supervising Israel's invasion and removing thousands of landmines planted by Israel in south Lebanon. The current term of UNIFIL will expire at the end of July. The U.N. Security Council will determine if the term will be renewed for another six months. UNIFIL was established in 1978 in line with U.N. Resolution 425 after Israel's invasion of Lebanon on March 15, 1978 in order to keep order and restore peace and stability in south Lebanon. The force will be scaled down to 4,500 troops by July 31 from its former level of 5,800 troops. The 10-nation UNIFIL will then be reduced to 3,600 at the end of this year and to 2,000 until July 31, 2002. After Israel withdrew its troops from south Lebanon last May after 22 years of occupation, Washington and Paris have been exerting pressure on the Lebanese government to force it to deploy troops in the south to fill the vacuum.กก Beirut, however, rebuffs the demand, arguing that it will not act as a border guard for Israel, leaving the area virtually under the total control of Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas, or Party of God. |
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