LEBANON: About 550 Spanish troops began arriving in Lebanon yesterday to join an expanded UN peacekeeping force to patrol the south alongside the Lebanese army following Israel's war with Hizbullah guerrillas.
Their arrival over the next few days will bring the number of UN troops in Lebanon close to the target of 5,000, which, the UN says, should prompt Israel to pull its troops out of the tiny border pockets they still occupy.
"Our target is 5,000 in the next few days," Milos Strugar, a spokesman for the Unifil peacekeeping force, said.
Spanish troops came ashore from two landing craft on to a beach in Tyre as Lebanese families basked and swam nearby. Spain's ambassador to Lebanon Miguel Benzo said the UN force had already reached a size sufficient for Israel to pull out.
"It is quite big enough in order to demand that the Israelis withdraw and they have shown that will," he said.
Israel said it would complete its pullout as soon as UN and Lebanese troops were ready to replace its forces. "We will be ready to pull out when they are ready," foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said, without saying if this would happen as soon as 5,000 UN troops were on the ground.
The expanded force, known as Unifil II, could eventually reach 15,000 troops to join a similar number of Lebanese army troops in the south under the Security Council resolution that halted 34 days of fighting on August 14th.
Mr Regev said Israel was concerned by what he called continuing violations of the UN resolution by the Lebanese side, saying the measure's call for the unconditional release of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbullah had gone unfulfilled.
Hizbullah insists the pair will only be freed in exchange for Lebanese prisoners held in Israel.
Mr Regev said the Shia Muslim guerrillas remained in the south despite the UN demand for the removal of any armed Hizbullah presence south of the Litani river, which lies about 20km north of Lebanon's border with Israel.
Hizbullah has said its fighters remain in their villages, without showing their weapons.
Mr Regev also said the Syrian border was a major gap in the enforcement of an international arms embargo stipulated by the resolution to prevent Hizbullah rearming. "Unfortunately, the Syria-Lebanon border remains porous and open," he said. "We want to see the Lebanese army, augmented by international forces, enforcing the embargo on that frontier."