RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
DON GONYEA, host:
And I'm Don Gonyea, in for Steve Inskeep.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that she is willing to return to the Middle East to try to work for a sustainable peace plan in Lebanon. Yesterday in Rome, diplomats did not call for an immediately end to the fighting in Lebanon. Officials from the U.S., Europe and some Arab countries did endorse sending an international military force under a United Nations mandate to help stabilize southern Lebanon. It's expected the force would be largely European.
From Berlin, NPR's Emily Harris reports.
EMILY HARRIS reporting:
The momentum to send international troops to Lebanon is rising, but there's not yet consensus on how or when that would happen. Basic questions are still unanswered. Under what conditions would soldiers go? With what mandate? And just who would provide troops? 60 years after World War II, Germans are generally cautiously comfortable with limited troop deployments abroad, but Stephan Kramer, of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, says even though the German military today has no relationship to Hitler's army, he doesn't want German troops in a volatile situation between Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces.
Mr. STEPHAN KRAMER (General Secretary, Central Council of Jews): Could you imagine having a German soldier firing on an IDF soldier defending his country? I don't think that this is something we want to see ourselves engaged with.
HARRIS: Support for Israel's right to exist is a grounding political principal for Germany. But given popular sympathy for the Palestinians and trade ties with Iran, Kramer is also skeptical that the German military could really help disarm Hezbollah.
Mr. KRAMER: It's not that I'm afraid that a German soldier wouldn't do it. But, I mean, I think this is a task which is far beyond of what German soldiers, politically and personally, can do in the region.
Mr. JEAN-YVES HAINE (Research Fellow for European Security, International Institute for Strategic Studies): I don't buy that.
HARRIS: Jean-Yves Haine is a research fellow at London's International institute for Strategic Studies.
Mr. HAINE: The restraint on German forces would come from other aspect, which is basically the risk of casualties and the fear of casualties. And so they will be put in a terrain where risk are far less than others.
HARRIS: Germany has indicated that if a European force goes to Lebanon, German troops would participate. State Secretary for Defense Christian Schmidt says it depends on the task given a force by the United Nations. If the job is to take over Israel's attempts to disarm Hezbollah, he says that would be impossible.
Secretary CHRISTIAN SCHMIDT (Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defense, Germany): This means searching. This means destroying. And I don't see that this would bring another level of peace possibility to the conflict. If we would just replace IDF troops by international troops, in effect, I think a lot people already involved would see this as some - just a replacement.
HARRIS: Italy's prime minister said yesterday his country would make a substantial contribution to a new U.N. force in Lebanon. Spain, Sweden, Greece, Finland and Turkey are also considering it. Giome Parmente(ph), with the French Institute for International Studies, says France would probably take the lead despite limited enthusiasm.
Mr. GIOME PARMENTE (Institute for International Studies, France): At the military are not keen, but if the mandate that is given to them is one where they can actually make a difference on the ground then they'll be ready to go.
HARRIS: Nearly 60 French troops were killed in Lebanon in 1983 by a suicide bomber. That happened at almost the same time an attack on the U.S. Marine barracks there killed almost 250 Americans. U.S. soldiers are not expected to participate in a U.N. deployment there this time, but French analyst Parmente thinks some active American involvement is vital.
Mr. PARMENTE: My view is that we need some sort of American support so that the Americans, politically speaking, are not induced by the Congress and by the chattering classes in Washington to take a completely critical position of the Europeans.
HARRIS: Meetings are scheduled in Brussels and at the United Nations next week to hammer out more guidelines for a force, but the issues are so difficult it may be weeks before any troops are deployed.
Emily Harris, NPR News, Berlin.
