Germany To Deploy 2,400 Naval And Air Forces To Lebanon
Joseph S. Mayton - All Headline News Middle East Correspondent Cairo, Egypt (AHN) - Germany has plans to send up to 2,400 naval and air force personnel to Lebanon in order to buttress the United Nations peacekeeping force in the country. Leading Social Democrat (SPD) Peter Struck said in Berlin on Wednesday that his government has approved the decision. The question of deploying German troops to the region 60 years since the end of World War II has divided a country, which only recently shed its post-war reluctance to participate in combat missions outside Germany. The main reason for the division in Germany is that soldiers may be drawn into fighting with Israeli forces, which has led Berlin to decline sending ground troops. Instead the focus will be on patrolling the Lebanese coast to prevent weapons from being smuggled into the country. The UN has approved the expansion of up to 15,000 troops in southern Lebanon as part of the resolution that ended the 34-day war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah.
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