EU facing test over Lebanon force

The European Union finally pulled itself together on Friday and came up with some serious numbers for troops to form the backbone of the international force for Lebanon.

There have been some wobbles by most and some wavering by France and it took the presence of the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan himself in Brussels to spur things on.

French prestige

But President Chirac in the end decided that he was content with the mandate of the force and perhaps felt that the prestige of France required enough of a contribution to enable it to assume command.

So France is to send 1,800 troops in addition to the 200 it already has in the existing and powerless UN force in southern Lebanon, Unifil. France already commands Unifil and that command will continue over the expanded international force as well until its end in early February.

Then, the Italians, who perhaps deserved leadership from the start because they have offered 3,000 troops without a quibble, will take over.

Even so, Mr Chirac said the force did not need the 15,000 soldiers the UN hopes to deploy, so all is not yet settled but Mr Annan pronounced himself satisfied. In all, the EU is likely to send some 6,000 troops to the force.

Now the UN has to get the other troop contributors to firm up their offers, though it remains to be seen if some of them who do not recognise Israel will in fact be asked to deploy.

Divergence

This has been yet another test for the EU's hopes of developing a common foreign and security policy.

It has not come out unscathed. For a start, Britain went its own way, siding with the United States over the timing of a ceasefire. So there has not been unity.

France led the EU for a time, but then drew back though its absence proved only temporary. So there has not been decisiveness.

One can say that once again, the EU has shown that it has problems in acting collectively, though when it does so it can exercise some influence. Without it, the international force would be the less.

And it can claim success in taking the leading role over Nato which the Israelis at first wanted.

John Palmer of the European Policy centre in Brussels said that more and more, security issues are being discussed by the EU.

"You see the security types in the corridors and meetings these days so much more than in the past and that is an indicator of where the EU is heading," he said.

Role of force

The European agreement came after it emerged that the force will not disarm Hezbollah but sees its primary role as helping the Lebanese army to deploy as required by Security Council resolution 1701.

Just how effective the force will be remains to be seen. One of its roles will be to help the Lebanese police their coasts and their border with Syria to stop rockets being sent to Hezbollah. That could lead to friction with Syria.

But the ceasefire really depends on the will of the parties and so far they have accepted it. They have fought this round rather inclusively and appear not to be in the mood to resume large-scale fighting.

But nobody thinks that this round will necessarily be the last one.

Paul.Reynolds-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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