Weak UN mandate stalls Lebanon peacekeepers

Smugglers, armed clans, hidden weapons, interfering neighbors, and enemy combatants with their fingers on their triggers. That is the landscape in Lebanon, and those are some of the reasons why it is proving so difficult to get a beefed-up United Nations peacekeeping force on the ground in south Lebanon.

The UN and the United States have called on Europe to rush troops to Lebanon to enforce the week-old cease-fire between Israel and Hizbullah fighters. But European leaders are hesitating, saying they don't want to send their soldiers into such a treacherous situation unless their mission and means are more clearly defined.

"If the mandate isn't clear, it won't work," says Jean Vincent Brisset, a French Army general and analyst with the Institute for International Relations in Paris. "Obviously in this case, it's not clear."

Although Italy has now offered to lead the force and President Bush said on Monday that its rules of engagement would eventually have to be clarified, little is expected to change on the ground until European Union foreign ministers hold consultations later this week.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who said he is willing to commit up to 3,000 soldiers, has called for a meeting of the EU's security councilby Friday. EU foreign ministers were also scheduled to meet in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the UN's request for troops.

The UN cease-fire resolution adopted earlier this month calls for up to 15,000 multinational troops to fortify UNIFIL, the existing UN observer force that has operated in Lebanon for the past 28 years. The new force would assist the Lebanese Army in taking control of south Lebanon where Hizbullah has ruled for years.

Because of opposition from the Lebanese government, which includes Hizbullah cabinet ministers, the resolution did not give the force broad rules of engagement that would have allowed peacekeepers to take offensive action.

France was widely expected to take the lead in reinforcing UNIFIL, which is now led by a French general. But it refused, citing the limited authority for the force. In an interview last week, Defense Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie explained the decision by saying, "You cannot send out men and tell them that they should watch what's happening but that they have no right to defend themselves or fire."

Draft rules of engagement for the force have been circulating at the UN. According to the French newspaper Le Monde, which said Tuesday that it obtained a version distributed last Friday, the UN force was defined as a defensive mission but could use "appropriate" and "proportional" force to protect itself and civilians under threat.

Other European countries, including Italy, have echoed the French concerns, saying the mandate has to be broadened so that the UN force has a clear agenda.

"The problem is, what should the force do?" says General Brisset. "If the Lebanese have a problem disarming Hizbullah, will this force come out and fire on Hizbullah? And if the Israelis send in commandos to assassinate Hizbullah leaders, does the force sit there and let it happen?"

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