Israelis Turn Over Small Border Area

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JERUSALEM (AP) – The Israeli army turned over a small border area in south Lebanon to Lebanese and foreign troops Thursday, a symbolic move paving the way for U.N. peacekeepers to go into the volatile area.

The pullback came as an international donors conference in Sweden pledged nearly $1 billion to help Lebanon rebuild, after the country’s prime minister told the gathering that Israel’s war with Hezbollah wiped out “15 years of postwar development.”

Israel sent up to 30,000 soldiers into Lebanon during the 34-day war, and when the fighting ended they occupied a zone extending about 10 miles north from the border.

Since the U.N.-brokered cease-fire took effect Aug. 14, Israel has been slowly transferring control of the area to Lebanese troops, who will be bolstered by U.N. troops equipped with tanks, howitzers and other heavy weapons not usually seen with a peacekeeping force.

The armament is meant to deter all parties from resuming the conflict, and particularly is seen as a warning to the Shiite militants of Hezbollah, who effectively ran southern Lebanon for two decades and used it as a base to launch sporadic attacks on Israel.

On Wednesday, Israel’s army withdrew from a small area of the border near the Israeli town of Metulla, putting Lebanese and U.N. troops in control of a section of the border for the first time since the early 1980s, the Israeli military said. The area was roughly 12 square miles.

Lebanon said its army sent reconnaissance teams to the area Thursday and had begun deploying troops there. The peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, confirmed Lebanese troops were moving into the area and said small numbers of international soldiers also were deploying.

“Over the past 24 hours, UNIFIL established checkpoints and conducted intensive patrolling confirming this morning that the IDF (Israeli Defense Force troops) were no longer present there,” a UNIFIL statement said.

Lebanese security officials said about 8,500 government soldiers were now in southern Lebanon, and the United Nations says nearly 2,200 international peacekeepers are on the ground.

Under the cease-fire, 15,000 Lebanese soldiers are to be joined by a similar number of international peacekeepers in patrolling the south.

Israel, which won’t say how many of its soldiers remain in Lebanon, rebuffed a request this week from the visiting U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan, to fully withdraw once 5,000 peacekeepers are deployed. Israel also turned down a request to immediately lift its sea and air embargo on Lebanon, which it says is needed to prevent Hezbollah from rearming.

After initial European hesitance over committing troops, the international force was quickly taking shape.

Some 1,000 Italian soldiers are expected in Lebanon over the weekend, the largest addition so far to the force, U.N. spokesman Alexander Ivanko told The Associated Press. Italy has pledged to send 2,500 in all.

In Paris, Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said France would send its first battalion of soldiers, along with tanks and heavy artillery, next week. The troops will be operational Sept. 15, she said.

France, which will initially lead the strengthened U.N. force, has about 400 soldiers in UNIFIL now and plans to expand that to 2,000.

France’s contribution is expected to include Leclerc tanks, howitzers, short-range anti-aircraft missiles and radar. Alliot-Marie said the heavy weaponry _ rare for a U.N. force _ is meant to send a signal that the cease-fire will be enforced.

The weapons “has a dissuasive character and guarantees the freedom of movement and the security of the troops,” Alliot-Marie told lawmakers at a closed session Thursday, according to excerpts released by her ministry.

The veiled warning was one of the strongest statements yet from the peacekeeping nations, which have said they don’t want armed conflict with Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s premier defended his Cabinet’s decision to send peacekeepers to Lebanon, warning in an address to the nation that “if we shut our doors, we can’t escape the flames that are surrounding us.”

Europe, the United States and Israel are keen to see peacekeepers from Muslim Turkey in Lebanon, hoping strong Muslim participation would avoid any impression that the U.N. force is primarily Christian and European. But many Turks fear their soldiers could end up facing hostile fire or clash with their fellow Muslims.

The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah devastated parts of Lebanon, which was still recovering from an earlier conflict with Israel and the country’s 1975-90 civil war.

Prime Minister Saniora told the donors conference in Sweden that the damage totaled billions of dollars.

“Moreover, Lebanon’s well-known achievements in 15 years of postwar development have been wiped out in a matter of days by Israel’s deadly military machine,” he said.

About 60 governments and aid groups attended the meeting in Stockholm, pledging more than $940 million for reconstruction and calling on Israel to lift its blockade.

Swedish Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson said that far exceeded the goal of $500 million. Adding previous pledges for longer-term reconstruction projects, he said a total of $1.2 billion was being made available to rebuild Lebanon.

“This is a very important accomplishment that we have made today,” a triumphant Mr. Saniora told reporters after the conference. “We will build on it.”

He stressed that none of the aid offered was tied to any conditions. “From day one we have not taken any support from any country, any institution that is linked to any condition,” he said.

Annan, who is on an 11-day Mideast trip to shore up the cease-fire, arrived in Syria to press the Damascus regime to join efforts to stop the flow of arms to Hezbollah and win the release of two Israeli soldiers captured by the guerrillas July 12. That raid sparked the fighting.

There was no immediate comment from Syria, which along with Iran is a major backer of Hezbollah.

Addressing Syria without naming it, Annan said he “would want to see the neighboring states extend their full cooperation to resolve all outstanding issues related to the border.”

Relations between Damascus and the United Nations have been tense since late 2004, when the Security Council told Syria to withdraw its army and stop interfering in Lebanon. The assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri in February 2005 forced Syrian troops to leave two months later, ending three decades of domination in its neighbor.

Tens of thousands of Israelis thronged a central square in Tel Aviv late Thursday in support of the two soldiers held in Lebanon as well as a third soldier captured June 25 by Gaza militants.


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