A bigger do-nothing UNIFIL joins the EU pretty please flotilla to assist Lebanon in doing nothing.

U.N. FORCE IS TREADING LIGHTLY ON LEBANESE SOIL

TIBNIN, Lebanon September 24/25, 2006 (NYT) - One month after a United Nations Security Council resolution ended a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, members of the international force sent to help keep the peace say their mission is defined more by what they cannot do than by what they can.

They say they cannot set up checkpoints, search cars, homes or businesses or detain suspects. If they see a truck transporting missiles, for example, they say they cannot stop it. They cannot do any of this, they say, because under their interpretation of the Security Council resolution that deployed them, they must first be authorized to take such action by the Lebanese Army.

The job of the United Nations force, and commanders in the field repeat this like a mantra, is to respect Lebanese sovereignty by supporting the Lebanese Army. They will only do what the Lebanese authorities ask.

And it's a sure bet the Lebanese authorities won't ask much. Even with three standing UN resolutions (scil., UNSCR 1599, UNSCR 1680, UNSCR 1701) calling for the disarming of Hizballah, no attempt to do so is seriously contemplated.

FRANCE INSISTS THAT HIZBOLLAH DISARM
AHEAD OF TROOP MOVE
PARIS/LONDON/JERUSALEM August 16, 2006 (FT)

Oh, French insistence! Always sure to get immediate results!

LEBANON: HIZBULLAH REJECTS CALLS TO DISARM
AS FRANCE URGES ISRAEL TO LIFT BLOCKADE
August 16, 2006 (Al Bawaba)

LEBANESE TROOPS WILL NOT DISARM HIZBOLLAH
JERUSALEM August 17, 2006 (Telegraph)

Building on success, France made UNIFIL not disarming Hizballah a "French specificity" according to master diplomat Philippe Douste-Blazy.*

The Security Council resolution, known as 1701,** was seen at the time as the best way to halt the war, partly by giving Israel assurances that Lebanon’s southern border would be policed by a robust international force to prevent Hezbollah militants from attacking. When the resolution was approved, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, one of its principal architects, said the force’s deployment would help "protect the Lebanese people and prevent armed groups such as Hezbollah from destabilizing the area."

But the resolution’s diplomatic language skirted a fundamental question: what kind of policing power would be given to the international force? The resolution leaves open the possibility that the Lebanese Army would grant such policing power, but the force’s commanders say that so far, at least, that has not happened.

... "There’s a lot of misunderstanding [about] what we are doing here," said Lt. Col. Stefano Cappellaro, an Italian commander with the San Marco Regiment. ... [On] a busy road heading toward Beirut, Colonel Cappellaro stood beside two armored personnel carriers and 11 of his soldiers as cars sped by. He said that they were conducting a “static point,” as opposed to a checkpoint. If they saw anything suspicious they would notify the Lebanese Army. But the Lebanese Army was a good way up the road. At this point, he said, it would be impossible for the two forces to actually staff a check point together.

"When you don’t know each other’s procedures, you can not overlap," he said before climbing into his jeep and driving off.

Why are 5,000 UNIFIL troops -- much less the 15,000 originally envisioned -- needed to do nothing? Just as well to deploy these.

* The dimmest bulb in the dark Chirac marquee™.

** Well it is 1701. We suppose the rewrite desk was on holiday.

PFFT (What is this?): Cosmetic deployment 3½ | Another UN joke resolution 4¾ | Another French diplomatic triumph 0 | Rayonnement français 0