The Government wants an international force with a balanced mandate, writes Mark Brennock
The Government believes any international force sent to Lebanon should not only have a UN mandate but be led by the UN. "In my view it would have to go under the UN hat and a UN hat alone", the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said yesterday.
In the wake of the killing of four UN soldiers in an Israeli attack on Tuesday, Mr Ahern yesterday gave the clearest description yet of the type of international force Ireland favoured.
Opposition spokesmen also agreed that an international force could not simply be the Nato-led force favoured by Israel with a narrow mandate to protect it from attack.
Mr Ahern dismissed the Israeli suggestion of a Nato-led force. Yesterday, before an international meeting in Rome on the situation, French president Jacques Chirac argued against the idea, saying Nato was seen as "the armed wing of the west" in the region. "I would agree with the French view", Mr Ahern said.
"We would have to be extremely careful about what type of force we send. I would accept that Nato would not be acceptable to a large element of people there. In my view it would have to go in under the UN hat and the UN hat alone."
He noted that the French government was talking about sending in an EU stabilisation force. Such a force would have to go in only if a ceasefire was in place, as it was "inconceivable that troops not from the region could go in the current situation".
"Suggestions that an EU force go in are easy to make. Logistically it would be difficult to put in purely an EU force on the ground." He also made clear that he believed a UN force should have a balanced mandate, and should not be set up as an international army going to south Lebanon solely to protect Israel from Hizbullah attacks.
An international force should have "a normal peacekeeping mandate . . . both to prevent Hizbullah [ attacks] and a reaction from the Israelis happening.
"An international force could not go in given the circumstances at the moment. It is the view of many other countries besides Ireland that we have to have a ceasefire first."
Acknowledging the threat faced by Israel, he said it was "quite obvious that Hizbullah has been stockpiling a very significant armoury which they are now using. Israel has gone in.
"I fully accept that Hizbullah started this by capturing soldiers. The response from Israel has been completely extreme, without any reference to the collateral damage on the civilian population. Last night reinforces the belief that Israel is going in to take out Hizbullah, but their army seems to be operating in such a way that there will be collateral damage.
"If Hizbullah is raining rockets into their country they have a right to prevent that, but not in a way that brings major collateral damage."
It is unusual for the Government to take a sharply different view on a foreign policy issue than the US. Ireland's traditional empathy with the Palestinian cause, past military expertise in relation to Lebanon and the attack on the UN post means that on this occasion it finds itself at odds with Israel - and therefore the US - on this occasion.
Fine Gael has said any force must be acceptable not only to the Israeli government but the Lebanese one too. The party's defence spokesman, Billy Timmins, said yesterday that it must aim not only to ensure Israel is safe from attacks from within Lebanon, but also that Lebanese people can live in a safe environment. He questioned whether an "old style" UN-led force could succeed in the current environment. Fine Gael supported the concept of EU battlegroups. He said he saw it as possible that Nato could initially lead an international force.
Labour's foreign affairs spokesman Michael D Higgins yesterday said an international force couldn't be mandated simply to be "a buffer to protect Israel . . . If its purpose is only to remove Hizbullah from adjacency to Israel, then no way is it acceptable to anyone interested in bringing peace to the region."
He also dismissed the Israeli suggestion that a force be led by Nato. "It isn't for Israel to decide the composition of a force which will aim to restore sovereignty to the Lebanon."
Sinn Féin called on the UN "to assert its authority and take the lead in this crisis".
A spokesman said SF would support a new UN peacekeeping force and "obviously the best people to perform such a task would be those who served in Lebanon in the past" such as the Irish.