Britain will not contribute troops to the U.N. peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon, but will make some offer, most probably a logistical one, at the U.N. troop contributors meeting set for Thursday, British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said Wednesday. “We do not have any spare troops. We are heavily involved in Iraq, especially in Afghanistan,” said Jones Parry. The U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a cessation of hostilities agreement last Friday which included a quick deployment of up to 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to extend the small 2,000-strong U.N. force, called UNIFIL, in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese government is expected to send 15,000 troops to southern Lebanon this week, and they would move in while the Israeli armed forces in the area would withdraw to Israel in parallel, as stipulated in the council resolution. A senior U.N. official told reporters on Tuesday that the United Nations was looking for an immediate deployment within the next two weeks of 3000 to 3,500 troops who would “self-deploy,” therefore eliminate the usual U.N. bureaucracy and speed up the deployment. France has indicated it would lead the force, but no concrete announcements have been made yet by any troop contributing country. Britain sent a brigadier general to Lebanon this week to sit with military chiefs to see how forces can move into southern Lebanon logistically, especially considering that there is minimal infrastructure to allow tanks and other equipment into the area. “What we have to do is maximize the replenishment, renewal, reinforcement of UNIFIL and its movements south,” said Jones Parry. “That's not easy, given the state of the infrastructure. We have somebody who is advising the government on exactly what they need, and we will try to help them with our requirements as to how they can deploy south more rapidly.”
