When it gets tough, the EU takes off from UNIFIL?
Il Giornale, May 14th, 2013
Rumors of a EU withdrawal from Beirut, just as Syria’s crisis is escalating tensions
It really would be no good sign if UNIFIL, the UN Peace Force on the border between Lebanon and Israel pulled out right now that tensions heated up due to Syria’s tragedy and all that goes with it. The EU is apparently threatening to withdraw its soldiers (it nonetheless denied it after a Kuwaiti newspaper disclosed the news) and these rumors were extremely detailed. The soldiers from the Old Continent, the French, Italians, and Belgians… would leave, on the field would remain Filipinos, their colleagues from San Salvador, Nepal... the nations who desire to keep their peacekeeping commitment undertaken with the UN. This would be just another confirmation of Europe’s inaction, just as a great mayhem - due to Syria’s civil war and the Iranian interference - has arisen on the Israeli – Lebanese – Syrian border, and Hezbollah is thriving.
Assad is threatening Israel (after the Israeli attack on weapons shipments bound to Hezbollah) and is announcing the creation of an army made up of Syrians, Palestinians, and Hezbollah (Nazrallah said to be thrilled) in order to conquer back the Golan, which has been quiet since the time of Hafez Assad. Meanwhile with the new weapons for Hezbollah, which already possesses more than 70 thousand missiles, while the threat of chemical weapons is looming, while the war between Shiites (Hezbollah and Iran with Assad’s Alawites) and Sunnis (the rebels, Turkey, the Muslim Brotherhood, Saudis, Egyptians …) is under way also inside Lebanon. But wait, our men would really pack right now, after some years the enjoyed relative quiet since 2006, the year of the second Israel-Lebanon war? Well,looks like. The European Union ambassador in Beirut, Angelina Eichhorst apparently told Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Najib Mikati that the EU will withdraw the UNIFIL coalition unless serious arrangements of safeguard are taken. Of course, as adfirmed by a UN official, the UN would still have to approve this decision, but each country has the right to leave as it wishes.
The request lodged to the Lebanese government to take care of the UNIFIL is certainly reasonable, but very hard to acquiesce. Since the end of the 2006 war Hezbollah attacked the UNIFIL patrols on the border, they gained back their positions, although the resolution 1701 prohibits the presence of Nasrallah’s henchmen south of the Litani river. A few days ago a UN vehicle was attacked with Molotov cocktails; a Belgian patrol was stopped, the keys were confiscated and guns were pointed at the soldiers… Hezbollah has been nervous ever since its armed collaboration with Assad has been widely noticed, and internal confrontations in Lebanon escalated. Many of its men came back in coffins, while their ally is becoming more hideous to the whole world. Like Assad and Iran, it has the strategic need to make the border with Israel scorching. And Israel is not just watching, for sure: its F16 fly over Beirut and hit Damascus so the temperature rises.
UNIFIL is really in a bad shape. The UN resolutions clamped it down in red tape so it didn’t actually succeed in stopping Nazrallah’s from stockpiling murderous weaponry; it was accused by both sides, Israel and Lebanon, to be useless. Hezbollah, that it should have neutralized is instead unstoppable because the provisions read: it can’t search Hezbollah nor can it disarm it without the intervention of the Lebanese army, which is far from doing so. Their commanders, especially the Italians, Claudio Graziano from 2007 to 2008, and the current one, Paolo Serra, did their best, the UNIFIL can unfortunately claim its own dead soldiers and employes (296 from 1978, the beginning of this mission). But UNIFIL is an awkward organization: its duty is to keep peace between Israel and Lebanon, but Israel’s enemy on the other hand is Hezbollah, who actually is also enemy of a pluralist Lebanon, and likely also the murderer of Rafik Hariri.
The most recent brilliant idea conceived by the EU apparently is to blacklist as a terror organization only the military wing of Hezbollah, in the face of the evidence (so the Bulgarian authorities claim) that Hezbollah are the perpetrators of the July 2012 attack on the bus (six dead) in Burgas.The European Union would save their political organization as if Nasrallah were a statesman, or rather a teacher who at times loses sight of his naughty pupils.