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France to monitor Lebanon coast
07/09/2006 14:58 - (SA)
Paris - France will temporarily monitor sea lanes off Lebanon to ensure that weapons don't reach Hezbollah fighters, the foreign minister said, claiming partial credit for Israel's decision to end its maritime blockade.
Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters France will make good on a tentative pledge made by President Jacques Chirac to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who had asked for the new French naval role in a phone conversation with the French leader on Tuesday.
"We have accepted," Douste-Blazy said. "The decision has been taken that we will participate in monitoring surveillance along the coast to ensure there is no delivery (of weapons) - or an embargo."
Blockade lifted
Under pressure from the international community, Israel agreed to lift by Thursday its nearly two-month-old blockade that crippled the flow of goods into a country battered by fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah.
Annan has been working on an accord in which French, Italian, Greek, and later, German ships would patrol Lebanon's coast in place of Israeli military forces.
Details of the French maritime patrols remained to be worked out, Douste-Blazy said, and France would carry them out for "two or three weeks," - until reinforcements from elsewhere arrive.
"I think this certainly had a role in the decision taken by the Israelis to lift the blockade - and that's why we have done it," the minister added.
Historical ties
France has historical ties to Lebanon, and led humanitarian and evacuation efforts in the country during 34 days of fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.
A French general also leads the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.
The French military already has two frigates and a transport ship in the eastern Mediterranean, and is beefing up its role in the peacekeeping operation from 400 to 2 000 soldiers.
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