Annan to mediate efforts to free Israeli soldiers

Qatar on Monday became the first Arab nation to announce it will contribute to the force, pledging 200 to 300 soldiers. Pakistan’s prime minister toured devastated south Beirut and considered a similar offer.

An Israeli spokesman said his country had no objections to Qatari troops. Qatar — like most other Arab states — does not recognize Israel, but the two countries have low-level trade ties.

The United States, Europe and Israel have been eager to have Muslim forces among the peacekeepers, but Muslim states fear they could be perceived as opposing Hezbollah, which gained considerable clout in the region for its fierce resistance to the Israeli army.

Flights resume
Qatar’s troop offer came on the same day that the country’s national air carrier, Qatar Airways, landed a commercial flight at Beirut airport, carrying 142 passengers, despite Israel’s blockade of Lebanon — the first of what the carrier said would be daily commercial flights.

An Israeli army spokesman said the flight was coordinated with Israel and was the fourth Qatari flight to land with Israeli permission in Beirut since Friday — an apparent reference to aid flights since this was the first known regularly scheduled commercial flight from Qatar.

But officials from the carrier and the Lebanese authorities insisted that the plane had flown without Israeli clearance.

On Saturday, Lebanon’s parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, called on Arab nations to send flights to break the blockade, which Lebanon has said is hampering its reconstruction efforts. Israel has refused international pressure to lift the blockade until it is guaranteed that weapons shipments to Hezbollah are halted.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani said his country’s troop contribution to the international force was an attempt by the tiny Persian Gulf nation “to tell the world of the Arab presence, even modestly, in this force and to tell Israel that we believe in this decision and so we want to contribute in implementing it.”

Will Pakistan join force?
Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz — leader of another key Muslim country — was considering a similar pledge as he toured the Dahiyah district of south Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold that was pounded to rubble by Israeli missiles during the war.

“If it helps the settlement of peace, Pakistan may consider contributing troops to Lebanon, but such a decision has not been made yet,” the Anatolia news agency in Turkey quoted Aziz as saying.

Under the cease-fire plan, 15,000 Lebanese soldiers have begun deploying to assert control over the Hezbollah stronghold south of the Litani River. They have been moving into areas that Israeli troops have left.

French Gen. Alain Pellegrini, who commands the U.N. force, met with senior Israeli and Lebanese officers at a border crossing Monday to coordinate Israel’s pullout.

“I think we are on the right track in securing the full withdrawal of the Israeli army from Lebanon and finally ensuring that the Lebanese army will take control of the whole border area in the south,” Pellegrini said in a statement.

Israeli security officials say they expect their army to be out of Lebanese territory within the next two weeks. By that time, they expect sufficient U.N. forces will have arrived in south Lebanon to enforce the truce.

More than 870 Italian soldiers reached Lebanon by Monday, with the remainder of a 1,000-strong Italian contingent arriving in the next few days. They bring the total number of U.N. forces in Lebanon to 3,250 — more than one-fifth of the target.

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