Pak may send troops to Lebanon

[Neo]

A surprise move from M. Singh!
What are the motives for India to withdraw troops from Israel?
Imho this is a great opportunity for India to strenghten its position into UN global affairs.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

A surprise move from M. Singh!
What are the motives for India to withdraw troops from Israel?
Imho this is a great opportunity for India to strenghten its position into UN global affairs.

Troops are not in Israel.

They are UN Forces on the Lebanese Border which are to be withdrawn.

Possibly because we support both side!

 

[Neo]

Troops are not in Israel.

They are UN Forces on the Lebanese Border which are to be withdrawn.

No troops are to be sent to Israel but into the buffer zone only right?

Possibly because we support both side!

You should have been a politician Sir!

 

[Jay_]

A surprise move from M. Singh!
What are the motives for India to withdraw troops from Israel?
Imho this is a great opportunity for India to strenghten its position into UN global affairs.

Their term is ending on Aug 31, 2006.

 

[TexasJohn]

A surprise move from M. Singh!
What are the motives for India to withdraw troops from Israel?
Imho this is a great opportunity for India to strenghten its position into UN global affairs.

Neo, why should India get in the middle of a p1$$!ng contest? This entire scenario is a big political game, playing out in the "Great Game"!

India and Pakistan are the "Little guys" even though their National egos think they mean something.

They are a legend in their own minds!

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

You should have been a politician Sir!

Notwithstanding the Gospel Truth that the military is the last bastion of efficiency, I still would decline to take up this profession since there is the famous quote "Politics is the last refuge of scoundrels'.

I prefer to avoid this sobriquet.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

New Delhi, Aug. 24: India will ask its troops with a UN force in southern Lebanon to return if new rules of engagement call for forcibly disarming the Hizbollah, a highly placed official said here today.

A total of 673 Indian troops are currently serving with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) whose mandate expires on August 31.

The UN-brokered ceasefire through the Security Council resolution 1701 has called for a more robust deployment on the Blue Line in the Israel-Lebanon border where Indian troops stayed camped through the 33-day war.

Union defence minister Pranab Mukherjee said yesterday that the government is considering pulling out its troops.

However, to the surprise of army headquarters here, India has not received any request from the UN department of peacekeeping operations for troops despite New Delhi’s “impressive” track-record with missions for the world body.

“It is a little like saying we will turn down the invitation to the party even if we are not on the guest-list,” one officer said. But the Unifil, with a strength of about 1,900 troops, is likely to be dovetailed into the enhanced UN force when it comes into being.

The current Unifil contingent is commanded by a French officer with an Indian deputy.

Delhi is awaiting further clarifications on the rules of engagement — a draft of which was leaked by the French newspaper Le Monde today — and also an assessment by its special representative to West Asia, Chinmaya S. Gharekhan.

The Le Monde report said the rules call for use of “deadly force” in the event of ceasefire violations.

The current Unifil deployment is under Chapter VI — peacekeeping — of the UN charter. But resolution 1701 charts a path for a Chapter VII — peace-enforcement — mandate that India is unwilling to be party to.

India currently has soldiers on a Chapter VII mandate in only one UN assignment in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A possible way out of the conundrum is the use of the Lebanese army that was currently being deployed in southern Lebanon in limited number. If the responsibility of “disarming the Hizbollah” — on Israeli insistence — is taken up by it, UN troops will have to support the moves.

But Lebanon itself does not recognise the state of Israel.

If India announces it will not participate, the “security vacuum” in Lebanon that UN officials in New York are worrying about will not only be enlarged, it will also send wrong signals to other potential troop-contributing countries.

The choice of countries is already limited by Israel. Tel Aviv said yesterday that it does not want troops from countries that have no diplomatic relations with Israel.

This leaves out large UN troop-contributing countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Most of these Islamic countries would not want to be seen going against the Hizbollah for domestic compulsions of their own.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060825/asp/nation/story_6655668.asp