From The Forward …
The United States is pushing for the deployment of a large international force in Lebanon, which would be authorized to confront Hezbollah and effectively prevent the militant group from rearming, senior Bush administration officials told Jewish communal leaders in recent days.
During a briefing with senior officials at several major Jewish organizations, Deputy National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams reportedly said that a multinational force in Lebanon would have to be âcombat ready,â authorized and appropriately equipped to engage Hezbollah militarily if needed. Such a force, he said, would also have to patrol not only Lebanonâs border with Israel but also Lebanonâs border with Syria, to prevent smuggling of weapons to Hezbollah. In addition, such a force would have to observe Lebanonâs sea and air ports to make sure that Iran is not rearming Hezbollah, Abrams reportedly said.
As I said a few days ago, I think some international force on the ground is likely essential to any sort of resolution to this. But that’s a broad brief. Who’s going to man that mission? I would imagine that both for political and capacity reasons the United States can’t make any significant contribution to ground troops who would take on this role.
