Qatar pledges 200-300 troops to UN Lebanon force

By Odai Sirri

DOHA (Reuters) – Qatar on Monday became the first Arab
country to commit troops to the expanded U.N. force set up to
keep the peace between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas in south
Lebanon.

The Gulf state said it would contribute 200-300 troops to
the U.N. force and planned to send a civilian airliner to
Beirut despite a nearly eight-week-old Israeli air and sea
blockade.

The planned deployment was announced by Qatari Foreign
Minister Sheikh Hamad al-Thani during a visit to Doha by U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Speaking to reporters, Annan said the United Nations hoped
the expanded U.N. force would be a “manifestation of
international solidarity” with Lebanon. He also urged Israel to
lift its siege of the country, saying it was unsustainable.

“We are using the U.N. influence to lift the embargo
especially as Lebanon is trying to rebuild… It has to be
allowed to rebuild. I urge Israel to cooperate,” he said.

Qatar, a political maverick in the conservative Gulf Arab
region, maintains low-level ties with Israel. It is also a key
U.S. ally and hosts a major U.S. military base.

“Qatar has relations with Israel and as a result Israel has
no objection to its participation in the force,” Israeli
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

Italian troops will make up the largest single contingent
of the force known as UNIFIL II, to deploy in the south after a
truce halted Israel’s 34-day war with Hizbollah on August 14.

The Finnish government has approved a plan to send up to
250 soldiers as the contribution to the U.N. operation in
Lebanon, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen told a news conference
on Monday.

The main body of troops would arrive by the start of
November and are expected to remain until end-2007. Finland’s
troops will mainly be engineers, according to the plan.

QATAR RESUMES FLIGHTS

Israel has kept an air and sea embargo on Lebanon since
July 13. It has not lifted it after the truce, saying it was
aimed at preventing Hizbollah rearming.

Qatar Airways announced on Sunday it would resume its
direct service to Beirut, despite Israel’s demand that all such
flights pass through Amman, Jordan for security reasons. The
first Qatar Airways plane is due to land in Beirut at 1230 GMT.

Israel said it would allow Qatar Airways to resume direct
flights to Beirut. “We have said that we will not act against
this,” an Israeli government official said.

Lebanese Transport Minister Mohammed Safadi said on Sunday
the government favored opening Beirut airport to any planes
willing to ignore Israeli restrictions.

Annan has in the past week visited Lebanon, Israel, the
West Bank, Jordan, Qatar, Syria and Iran.

He said he won the support of the presidents of Syria and
Iran, Hizbollah’s main backers, for the implementation of the
U.N. resolution on Lebanon that halted the war which killed
nearly 1,200 Lebanese and 157 Israelis.

Italy has pledged 3,000 troops to a U.N. plan to increase
the existing 2,000 peacekeepers in Lebanon to 15,000 to help
enforce the truce. The Lebanese army is also deploying 15,000
troops in the volatile area.

Around 900 Italian troops, backed by about 150 vehicles,
landed in south Lebanon at the weekend. The troops are expected
to deploy in areas east and south of the port city of Tyre.

The war in Lebanon and a resurgence of violence in Gaza,
which Israel quit last year, appeared to have a far-reaching
effect on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday he had
put his plan for an Israeli pullback from parts of the West
Bank on hold for now, Army Radio reported.

“What I thought was the right thing to do in the
Palestinian sphere several months ago has changed now,” the
radio quoted Olmert as telling parliament’s Foreign Affairs and
Defense Committee in remarks about his “realignment” proposal.

(Additional reporting by Beirut, Dubai and Jerusalem
bureaux)