Annan to visit Beirut to shore up Lebanon truce

Kofi Annan

BEIRUT - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will discuss the deployment and role of a planned 15,000-strong peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon when he visits Beirut later today for the first time since the Israel-Hizbollah war.

Other issues are likely to include the lifting of an Israeli air and sea blockade of Lebanon, policing of the Lebanese-Syrian border to stop arms smuggling and a possible prisoner swap between Israel and the Lebanese Hizbollah guerrilla group.

Annan, due to meet Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and the speaker of the Lebanese parliament Nabih Berri, was seeking full implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1701, a UN spokesman said at the weekend.

The resolution ended a 34-day war between Israel and Hizbollah on August 14 but also made a series of demands on Israel, Lebanon and the international community which have yet to be met.

It urged the reopening of Lebanon's airports and harbours, blockaded by Israel since the start of the war, and the securing of Lebanon's land borders to prevent arms smuggling.

The resolution also called for the international community to provide enough troops to allow the United Nations to boost the size of its current UNIFIL force in Lebanon from 2,000 to 15,000.

Annan discussed the European Union contribution to the expanded force with EU leaders in Brussels on Saturday. He said France, which has promised 2,000 troops, would lead it until February when Italy, which has pledged 3,000, would take over.

"We should deploy, I hope, within the next few days, not the next few weeks," Annan said after the talks.

A close aide to Siniora said Annan would brief the prime minister on the Brussels talks.

"But the government will press him first to pressure Israel to end its blockade on Lebanon because it violates Security Council resolution 1701 and threatens stability in Lebanon," the aide told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Israel says until the expanded UNIFIL force arrives to police southern Lebanon, the blockade is essential to prevent weapons reaching Hizbollah. Since the end of the war it has relaxed the blockade, allowing commercial planes to fly in and out of Beirut through Amman in Jordan.

The Jewish state wants UN troops to police the 375 km Lebanese-Syrian border to prevent the smuggling of arms to Hizbollah, but Syria has said such a move would be hostile and has threatened to close the border if it happens.

That would effectively cut Lebanon off from the outside world as the country's only other land border is with Israel, with which it has no diplomatic ties.

Resolution 1701 does not call for the deployment of UN troops to the Lebanese-Syrian border but asks UNIFIL to assist the Lebanese government "at its request" in securing the country's borders.

Also expected to be discussed is the release of Israeli and Hizbollah prisoners, including two Israeli soldiers whose seizure by the Shi'ite Muslim group on July 12 sparked the war.

Hizbollah wants to exchange them for some of the thousands of Arab prisoners, including Lebanese, in Israeli jails.

Annan has said both sides will have to make "painful compromises" to get what they want.

Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday contacts had been made that might eventually lead to negotiations over prisoners.

"It seems that Italy is trying to get into the subject. The United Nations is interested and the negotiations would be through Berri," Nasrallah said in a television interview.

An Israeli official said today: "There are no negotiations over the exchange of prisoners."

As well as visiting Beirut, Annan is expected to travel to southern Lebanon. He will go to Israel on Wednesday and is also due to visit Syria and Iran as part of his Middle East tour.

While the fragile truce was holding on Israel's northern border, there was no end in sight for violence in the Palestinian territories where an Israeli air strike killed four members of the Hamas-led security force during ongoing clashes in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, medics and witnesses said.

Israeli military officials had no immediate comment on the new reported deaths in Gaza City's Shijaia district, an Islamist militant stronghold that troops entered on Sunday.

- REUTERS