UN working on update of Resolution 425

By Aluf Benn Ha'aretz Diplomatic Correspondent, 4.4.00

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the French government are working to adjust Security Council Resolution 425 in order to clarify the terms of a deployment of international peacekeeping forces in South Lebanon after the IDF withdraws from the region.

Foreign Minister David Levy will meet today in Geneva with Annan and present the Israeli government's decision to pull out of Lebanon this July. Levy will tell the UN Secretary General that the withdrawal will comply with Resolution 425, passed in March 1978.

Levy will also say that Israel wants international cooperation in determining the northern border, and also that it wants a mechanism to be put in place which would forestall a violent escalation in Lebanon after the IDF's departure. Levy and Annan will discuss the deployment of an international peacekeeping force along the border.

Israel is inviting UN involvement in the setting of a timetable for the withdrawal and the precise determination of the border, in an effort to muster international support for its present and future polices in the North. Israel wants the international community to support any harsh retaliatory measure it may take in response to possible violence perpetrated in the future against residents of the Galilee.

Foreign Ministry officials believe that the UN's decision to update the long-standing 425 resolution and provide a new mandate for the international peacekeeping force would be in Israel's interest.

Yet officials in Jerusalem suspect that Syria will try to thwart a bid to deploy a new international force in Lebanon, fearing that such a unit might undermine its authority among local Lebanese residents. The Israeli officials believe that during the next meeting of Arab foreign ministers, Syria will try to mobilize a pan-Arab front to block any such move to deploy new peacekeepers in South Lebanon.

Prior to leaving for Switzerland, Levy met on Monday with the U.S. and French ambassadors to Israel, Martin Indyk and Jacques Hunzinger. The discussion focused on two alternatives for the deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon after an IDF pull-out:

l Continued activity of UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in Lebanon) troops, which have been stationed in Lebanon since 1978, in new positions along the border. UNIFIL today has 4,500 soldiers from nine countries (France, Fiji, Finland, Ghana, India, Ireland, Italy, Nepal and Poland); its mandate is extended every six months by UN Security Council decision.

l Dismantling of UNIFIL, and the establishment of a new peacekeeping force which would not be under the UN's aegis. The new force could possibly be controlled by the European Union; and it would rely heavily upon French involvement, in accord with President Jacques Chirac's vow that France would play a part in new security arrangements in Lebanon.

Israel would prefer the first of these two options, favoring the continuation of UNIFIL troops, partly because of strong U.S. influence in the UN. Israeli officials are wary that the second option could lead to greater European involvement in the region; they also believe that France itself prefers the first, UNIFIL, option.

Prime Minister Barak said yesterday: "I'm not sure that there is a need for new forces, or additional ones in the UNIFIL framework; perhaps [there is room for] a small increase of people from the countries which are active today in UNIFIL."

The Prime Minister suggested that the deployment of the current UNIFIL contingent, under the auspices of the Security Council, could suffice "to solve the problem" left by an IDF withdrawal from the security strip.