France is still waiting for the result of a UN meeting before making the
decision on troop deployment to reinforce the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon,
French Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
According to French daily Le Monde, France would only send symbolically "a dozen officers and a 200-man logistics team".
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau didn't confirm or comment
the report.
"We are waiting for the definition of the operation concept by the United
Nations," he told a news conference.
"The guarantees asked by France to make its decision on the level and nature
of its contribution to the reinforced UNIFIL concern in particular the necessary
specifications relating to the nature of the missions, the commitment and
command rules and means this force will have," said the French spokesman.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, unanimously adopted Friday, gives a
mandate for the UN interim force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to swell from its current
level of 2,000 troops to 15,000 as Israeli forces withdraw from the region.
The United Nations will hold a meeting on Thursday in New York to determine
the terms of commitment of the reinforced force in Lebanon.
