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Predictable news flash: European and Mediterranean governments are dragging their feet rather than sending troops to participate in the United Nations' peacekeeping effort in Lebanon, as called for in Security Council Resolution 1701. Just how bad has it gotten? All eyes are now on Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who said he might commit up to 3,000 men to what is supposed to be a 15,000-man contingent - but only if other European nations send their fair share. That doesn't look likely. France, living up to its reputation for courage under fire, first offered an embarrassing 200 soldiers. They have...

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, said today that Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, had promised to enforce an arms embargo on Hizbollah under a UN resolution that halted Israel's war with the Lebanese group. "The president informed me that Syria supports the Security Council Resolution 1701 and will help in its implementation," Annan told reporters after talks with Assad in Damascus. "While stating Syrian objections to the presence of foreign forces along the Syrian-Lebanese border, the president committed to me that Syria will take all necessary measures to implement in full paragraph 15 of the resolution," Annan added, referring to...

Israeli, Lebanese officials warn of '2nd round' of confrontations Hezbollah has returned to many of its strongholds in south Lebanon and is capable of launching another round of attacks against the Jewish state, Israeli and Lebanese officials tell WorldNetDaily. The statements follow scores of reports Iran and Syria are attempting to rearm Hezbollah one week after a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon went into effect following 34 days of confrontations that began when Lebanese militia ambushed an Israeli patrol unit, kidnapping two soldiers and killing eight others. "Hezbollah has undoubtedly returned to their positions," Walid Jumblatt, Lebanon's Druze leader and...

Athens, Greece -- While changing planes here in this ancient capital, I arranged to meet with an old friend who has long experience in the Middle East. Fluent in many Mediterranean and Persian Gulf languages and intimately familiar with the long, sad history of enmity in the region, he worked quietly with Americans for decades. I first met him in the 1980s during sensitive -- but ultimately fruitless -- efforts to elicit help from Arab governments in obtaining the release of American hostages being held in Lebanon. Throughout his personal triumphs and failures, successes and frustrations, I've always found him...

While changing planes here in this ancient capital, I arranged to meet with an old friend who has long experience in the Middle East. Fluent in many Mediterranean and Persian Gulf languages and intimately familiar with the long, sad history of enmity in the region, he worked quietly with Americans for decades. I first met him in the 1980s during sensitive -- but ultimately fruitless -- efforts to elicit help from Arab governments in obtaining the release of American hostages being held in Lebanon. Throughout his personal triumphs and failures, successes and frustrations, I've always found him optimistic, his affection...

Italy Weighs the Risks of Leading UN Mission Tony Barber in Rome Updated: 10:41 p.m. ET Aug. 24, 2006 With 8,600 soldiers deployed in 28 security and peacekeeping operations around the world, Italy will have a wealth of experience to call upon, should it be asked to lead a United Nations mission in Lebanon.But the closer that Italy's centre-left government gets to committing itself in Lebanon, the more opposition politicians – and some army generals, too – are warning that it may be a step fraught with dangerous consequences. The concerns centre on whether Italian troops will find themselves caught...

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora urged the United States on Wednesday to help end Israel's sea and air blockade, and said his country was making "every effort" to secure its borders. "The United States can support us in putting real pressure on Israel to lift the siege," the Western-backed Saniora told reporters. His government has called the blockade a violation of the U.N.-brokered cease-fire, and has asked the international community to intervene. Lebanon's leading An-Nahar newspaper reported that Saniora had spoken with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to enlist their help.

Proposed rules of engagement for an expanded U.N. force in southern Lebanon would allow troops to open fire in self-defense, protect civilians and back up the Lebanese army in preventing foreign forces or arms from crossing the border, according to a U.N. document obtained Tuesday. The 20-page draft was circulated to potential troop-contributing countries last week by the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations, which is trying to get an additional 3,500 troops on the ground by the end of next week to strengthen the 2,000 overstretched U.N. peacekeepers already there. The rules of engagement for the expanded force —...

Most U.N. resolutions don't have the shelf-life of a gallon of milk, which isn't always a bad thing. But in the case of Resolution 1701--the cease-fire agreement for Lebanon and Israel adopted unanimously this month by the Security Council--things seem to be going sour even faster than that. And that is cause for serious unease. On Thursday, Jacques Chirac confirmed a Le Monde report that his government was prepared to offer only some 200 combat engineers (in addition to the 200 French troops already in Lebanon) to what is supposed to be the resolution's centerpiece: A 15,000-man U.N. force that...

Farce is a French word, right? Well, it's the mot juste for what happened Thursday as the United Nations scrambled to assemble a robust force to keep the peace in Lebanon. France led the diplomatic charge for the truce in Lebanon, calling for a cease-fire almost immediately. It played a central role in crafting the resolution that would send a UN force of about 15,000 to help the weak Lebanese army control the south and stop arms shipments to Hezbollah. France, one UN official said, was supposed to be the backbone of the force, leading it and contributing significant numbers...

Lebanon threatens to halt deployment The Lebanese defence minister has threatened to halt the army's deployment in south Lebanon if the UN does not take up the issue of Saturday's Israeli commando raid. "If there are no clear answers forthcoming on this issue, I might be forced to recommend to the cabinet early next week the halt of the army deployment in the south," Elias Murr said after a meeting with UN representatives on Saturday.

<p>Fox is reporting that commandos intercepted Syrian arms being shipped into hezbollah positions... Other news sources have said 3 hezbollah killed. It's sketchy right now.</p>

Beirut fury at 'ceasefire breach' The commandos were airlifted from a cornfield, witnesses say Lebanese PM Fouad Siniora has accused Israel of a "naked violation" of the five-day-old ceasefire, after a raid by Israeli commandos deep inside Lebanon.The raid, in the eastern Bekaa Valley, left one Israeli dead and two injured. Israel said it was trying to disrupt the movement of weapons from Iran and Syria to Hezbollah, and insisted the ceasefire was still intact. The operation came hours after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned of a "fragile" situation on the ground. The Israeli raid centred on the...

We're just as surprised as we can be - aren't you? - to discover that so far not much is happening with this big, robust peacekeeping force that the UN pledged to dispatch pronto to preside over brotherhood and goodwill forevermore in the promised lands as the Security Council forced an end to Israel's war of self-defense against Hezbollah. Italy, standup kind of country that it is, commits to supply up to 3,000 troops in short order, and places like Finland and Bangladesh have offered contributions as well, but nearly everybody else is scrambling furiously to squirrel out of any...

While the damage caused Israel’s military reputation tops Western assessments of the Lebanon war, DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report an entirely different perception taking hold in ruling circles in Tehran. After UN Security Council resolution 1701 calling for a truce was carried Friday, Aug. 11, the heads of the regime received two separate evaluations of the situation in Lebanon – one from Iran’s foreign ministry and one from its supreme national security council. Both were bleak: their compilers were concerned that Iran had been manipulatively robbed of its primary deterrent asset ahead of a probable nuclear confrontation with the United States...

top Lebanese government official said Wednesday evening that the Cabinet had approved a plan to deploy the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) south of the Litani River starting Thursday. The twice-delayed meeting approved sending the army to the south of the country, where it will slowly take over territory from which IDF forces have begun to withdraw. WAR IN THE NORTH: THE AFTERMATH Blog: Lone soldier writes about his combat in Lebanon Analysis: Unworthy of command? Tank hits not as bad as it seemed Editorial: Fight for the peace Prepare for the next round, by Ephraim Inbar Many Arabs, sadly, see...

While the Lebanese as a whole were supportive of Hezbollah during the war to preserve the national unity, they were always concerned about the day after--- when the war finishes. Many are asking if this resolution will end up being like 1559, which was never implemented as far as the Hezbollah arms are concerned. The majority of the Lebanese feel that if Hezbollah is not disarmed this could lead to a civil war...they want to see arms only in the hands of the Lebanese army. The question is will Hezbollah treat this as a victory for Lebanon and agree to...

How many cease-fires have there been in the Middle East — or is the number too large to remember? Over the past half century, there must have been more cease-fires in the Middle East than in the rest of the world combined. What will this latest cease-fire do? It will give Hezbollah a breather from Israeli retaliation and allow them time to get new shipments of military equipment from Iran, rebuild their military infrastructure and prepare for the next round of attacks on Israel. Why do these phony cease-fire scenarios keep getting repeated? Because there are too many people, including...

UN Israel Lebanon Ceasefire Broken By Hezbollah By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Tel Aviv----August 14...... Just 4 hours after a UN brokered Israel Lebanon ceasefire was to take affect, the terror organization Hezbollah attacked an IDF force in south Lebanon. "A group of armed Hezbollah terrorists approached an IDF force in the south Lebanon village of Hadatha," an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told the Israel News Agency. "The IDF force took defensive positions, requested that they lay their arms down, fired warning shots and then fired at the approaching Hezbollah terrorists. The firefight occurs over a short period of...

The French commander of UNIFIL, Maj.-Gen. Alain Pellegrini, said Tuesday that his peacekeeping force will not attempt to disarm Hizbullah. Dealing with Hizbullah, Pellegrini said, was an internal Lebanese matter, and the 15,000 UN troops to be deployed under his command would not get involved. It was up to Lebanon, he said, to deploy its army in the south and deal with the Hizbullah presence. Pellegrini said reinforcements for the UN personnel already in Lebanon were needed quickly, because even one "stray act" could sabotage the cease-fire between Israel and Hizbullah.