Hydrablog

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/26/world/middleeast/26diplo.html
September 26, 2006
Peacekeepers Have ‘Robust’ Mandate, Rice Says
By THOM SHANKER [rice] [state] [on Lebanon’s multilateral peacekeeping force] [how robust is its mission] [read: is it there to disarm Hezbollah?] [Hezbollah has already made preemptive statement that it shall not be disarmed] [rice has stuck her neck out on this and needs to see some success] [***********]
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon yesterday to act on what she termed “a very robust” mandate approved by the United Nations that grants international troops authority to challenge anyone who attempts to block their mission, and to use force if necessary. [**********]
“The language says that anything and anyone who keeps them from fulfilling their responsibilities is to be challenged on that, and they even have the right to use force if they need to,” Ms. Rice said. “That mandate was written in a very robust fashion.”
She acknowledged, however, that “it’s always a matter of how it’s interpreted.”
Members of the international force sent to Lebanon under a United Nations Security Council resolution passed one month ago have said that they cannot set up checkpoints, search cars or trucks, homes or businesses, or detain suspects.
Commanders of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or Unifil, say the Security Council resolution places Lebanese sovereignty paramount — meaning they first must be authorized to take such actions by the Lebanese Army.
In an interview yesterday with editors and reporters of The New York Times, Ms. Rice said, “I would hope that Unifil would interpret its mission in a way that allows it to really do what it is supposed to do, which is not to allow a return to the status quo ante in the south.” [***********]
A goal of Security Council Resolution 1701 was to increase the numbers and military punch of the international force in Lebanon, [*******]as well as to create the conditions for the Lebanese military to move into the south. Both operations are viewed as important to separate Israeli and Hezbollah forces, halt attacks and prevent Hezbollah from rearming.
The question of how commanders of the international force have interpreted the mandate on the ground “is something we will follow up on,” [********]Ms. Rice said.
Ms. Rice noted that the expanded Unifil mission was new and that it was not yet operating with the full number of desired troops. But she stressed that the peacekeepers “certainly got the authority to do whatever they need to do to do their job.”
“That’s very clear, and it says so,” she added. “I think there probably ought to be a conversation with Unifil about how it sees its responsibilities.”
In assessing political progress since the resolution was approved, Ms. Rice said that “Lebanon had come to a standstill, politically, well before the Hezbollah attack.” Yesterday she said, “I think you could make an argument that after the war things have begun to move — some of them sideways, some of them forward, but they have begun to move. I’m not sure that anything has begun to move backwards.” [********]
The political situation in Lebanon “is very fragile,” she acknowledged. But the fact that the Lebanese government and the Lebanese armed forces have extended their reach into southern Lebanon “is a major achievement,” [********] she said.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company