International peacekeepers set for Lebanese borders

International peacekeepers set for Lebanese borders

BEIRUT (AP): Lebanon said on Wednesday -- for the first time -- that it will accept international peacekeepers in areas to be vacated by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, a move that could help prevent attacks by Lebanese guerrillas.

In a statement, Prime Minister Salim Hoss welcomed Israel's planned withdrawal as "a radical turning point for Lebanon," and said that the power vacuum created by the pullout will be filled by an "international force," a clear reference to United Nations peacekeepers.

The statement was the first official Lebanese reaction since Israel formally notified the United Nations last week that it was pulling its army out of Lebanon by July, ending nearly two decades of occupation.

Lebanon has previously expressed fears that an Israeli withdrawal could lead to violence along the border in the absence of an overall Middle East peace settlement. It also had refused to say whether it will allow UN forces or its own army to fan out along the border region that is to be evacuated by Israel.

But in Wednesday's statement, Hoss said: "We have to remind ourselves that the Israeli withdrawal will not lead to a vacuum threatening security and stability as some pessimists like to portray."

"We should not forget that the situation in the areas to be vacated by Israel will be protected by the international force" under UN resolutions 425 and 426.

It was the first time Lebanon has acknowledged, if indirectly, that it will agree to UN forces being deployed in the area. It was feared that a power vacuum created by the Israeli withdrawal would encourage Lebanese guerrillas to move close to the border and attack Israel. The guerrillas are fighting on an almost daily basis to oust the 1,500 Israeli troops and their 2,500 allied militiamen in the occupied area. Israel has warned that guerrilla attacks after its withdrawal would invite harsh retaliation.

But a deployment of the 4,500-member UN peacekeeping force already available in southern Lebanon is likely to keep a lid on tensions.

UN resolutions 425 and 426 of 1978 call on Israel to withdraw to the international border and for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon to deploy in the vacated areas to oversee the pullout and help the Lebanese government restore its authority.

However, implementation of the resolutions, including the UN peacekeepers' deployment, requires the consent of both Israel and Lebanon -- which has not explicitly occurred.

Israel first invaded Lebanon in 1978 and again in 1982 when it occupied large parts of the country, including the capital, Beirut. It began withdrawing south but created a border security zone in the south -- 10 percent of Lebanese territory -- in 1985. Israel said the border zone was necessary to protect its northern communities from cross-border guerrilla raids. But after casualties from Lebanese guerrilla attacks, Israel decided to accept the UN withdrawal resolutions last year.

Lebanon, which for years called for unconditional Israeli withdrawal, had expressed misgivings recently about Israel's planned pullout without a peace settlement involving Lebanon and Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon. Syrian-Israeli peace talks have been stalled since January, making a peace settlement unlikely.