August 7, 2006

Lebanese reject French-US plan | csmonitor.com

Lebanese reject French-US plan | csmonitor.com:


The Lebanese army appears to be more like a police force. They can't fight Hezbollah or Israel so they are certainly incapable of disarming Hezbollah. So it seems the only force capable of disarming Hezbollah are the Israelis or the Syranians.

"The army reflects Lebanon's own sectarian mosaic and ethnic balance, with roughly one-third each of Shiite, Sunni, and Christian troops. But analysts say the Shiites are close to Hizbullah, and that any enforced effort to disarm the Shiite militia - the last to keep its weapons after Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war - could cause the army to disintegrate.

'Even their movement depends on peace resolution ... they just don't have the means, the capability, or the equipment,' says Timur Goksel, a 24-year veteran senior adviser and spokesman for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, who now teaches conflict resolution at the American University of Beirut.

The Lebanese Army 'is a very respectable internal security force ... their capability is very high, [but] we should not test the loyalty or cohesion of that army by putting it in an impossible role,' says Mr. Goksel. 'It can't take on the Israelis, and can definitely not take on Hizbullah.'"

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