Indonesia Wants To Send Troops To Lebanon
Joseph S. Mayton - All Headline News Middle East Correspondent Beirut, Lebanon (AHN) - The Indonesian government continues to push for their involvement in the expanded United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon despite calls from Israel that this should not be allowed. Israel says that any country that does not have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state, Indonesia included, cannot deploy troops to southern Lebanon. "It is the United Nations that will decide, not Israel," Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono told reporters at his office in Indonesia. The largest Muslim nation in the world has plans to send 1,000 troops to Lebanon under the auspices of the UN. The nation does not have diplomatic ties with Israel. Sudarsono said the Indonesian military was involved in U.N. peacekeeping operations in the past in several countries to which Indonesia has no diplomatic ties. "In 1957, the Garuda One contingent joined peacekeeping operations in conflict zones during the battle between Israel and Arab countries," he said. Israel wants Italy to lead the expanded force that is supposed to act as a buffer between the Jewish state and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
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