Smith warns Lebanon role will be kept under review

Ireland's involvement in United Nations peacekeeping missions in South Lebanon remains under review after Israel failed to guarantee the safety of troops in the region yesterday.

The Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Moshe Arens, said he was not in a position to provide absolute guarantees for the safety of Irish soldiers coming under fire from the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA).

Mr Arens told the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, yesterday he was sorry for recent attacks on Irish positions, in particular the incident in which Pte William Kedian was killed and Pte Ronnie Rushe was critically injured three weeks ago.

Mr Arens declined to comment after the meeting, held in the Israeli Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv.

Speaking after the half-hour meeting, the Minister said he believed the Israeli government would now make "a determined effort" to end indiscriminate firing by the SLA. But Mr Arens made no specific commitments to take action.

The Israelis accepted that they controlled the SLA, but the militia sometimes did things they did not approve of.

Mr Smith said the Defence Forces would now be monitoring the situation in South Lebanon, to see if the security situation improved. "The next few weeks will tell," he said.

He added: "We know there are risks in peacekeeping, but when they pass a certain threshold, and we are becoming targets of both sides, it is not acceptable." He said that to stay on "regardless of what happens and be taken for granted" was not something he was contemplating.

The review of Irish involvement in UNIFIL would go on, he said.

Mr Arens had said Israel would like to pull out of South Lebanon, but had not received from Hizbullah the guarantees it wanted for the security of its northern border.

On Monday Mr Smith delivered a similar message, this time regarding the Hizbullah fighters, to the Lebanese Minister of Defence. In the past two months Irish peacekeeping troops have been caught in the middle as the conflict between the SLA and Hizbullah intensified.

Reckless shooting at Irish positions would not be taken lightly, Mr Smith said. But neither would the Government pull out of Lebanon lightly.

In both meetings the Minister pointed out that in a recent attack on their compound at Haddathah Irish troops avoided a "catastrophe" only because they never received an "all clear" message that turned out to be false. An ensuing mortar attack destroyed a shower room and could have resulted in major casualties.

Mr Smith received first-hand evidence of the increasing tension this week when his visit was curtailed by heavy fighting in the Irish Battalion area.

The Minister pointed out that Ireland has lost more soldiers in South Lebanon than any other country contributing to the UNIFIL force. Forty Irishmen have died on duty, 18 of them under hostile fire.

In a parallel meeting yesterday the Chief-of-Staff of the Defence Forces, Lt-Gen Dave Stapleton, held talks on the security situation in the area with his Israeli counterpart, Lt-Gen Shaulmosaz.

The Minister and his party returned to Dublin last night.