UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday that Israeli
troops would pull out of south Lebanon after the deployment of
5,000 UN peacekeepers and 16,000 Lebanese troops.
"That is what I have just been discussing with the Israeli
government," Annan told French private radio Europe 1.
"We agreed that with 5,000 UN troops and 16,000 Lebanese
soldiers who will go down south, it would be a credible force to
allow the Israelis to pull out entirely," he said.
"I hope that one week up to 10 days from now, we will have
5,000. At that point, the Israelis will be forced to pull out. It
is very important because the situation is fragile. As long as
there are Israeli troops on Lebanese territory, there are some
Lebanese who are going to consider that they are being occupied,"
he said.
"I think we need to move as soon as possible," said Annan, who
again called upon Israel to lift the sea and air blockade on
Lebanon.
"We need to start lifting the blockade sooner because quite
frankly I don't think the situation will hold until then," Annan
said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday ruled out
lifting the blockade unless the UN resolution 1701 is fully
implemented.
Resolution 1701, unanimously adopted on Aug. 11 by the UN
Security Council, calls for a strengthened UN Interim Force in
Lebanon (UNIFIL) from 2,000 to 15,000 troops, the deployment of the
Lebanese army there, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the
disarmament of Hezbollah.
The UNIFIL will deploy 5,000 peacekeepers by the end of
September, according to the chief of the UN peacekeeping operation,
Jean-Marie Guehenno.
"On Friday (Sept. 1st), the first troops -- Italian troops --
will start to deploy, which means we should reach, within a month,
a level of 4,000 to 5,000 men or a doubling of the force," the
French newspaper Le Monde quoted Guehenno on Thursday.
Annan is on a visit to the Middle East to try to consolidate the
fragile ceasefire in Lebanon. After Lebanon, Israel, the West Bank
and Jordan, he is expected to be in Damascus on Thursday for talks
with Syrian leaders. He will also visit Iran, Qatar, Turkey and
Saudi Arabia.
(Xinhua News Agnecy September 1, 2006)
