Word: lebanon
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...bright side, Israeli officials have told European counterparts that Israel would not launch any new attacks on Lebanon. For the moment Hizballah looks content to focus on what it calls the "jihad for reconstruction." The organization put up banners throughout the country proclaiming its "Divine Victory" over Israel as its officials throw themselves into helping refugees and rebuilding urban neighborhoods and rural villages. Hizballah is busy handing out $10,000-to-$12,000 packets of cash to Lebanese whose homes were destroyed or severely damaged...
...just how fragile the peace can be became clear last weekend when a gunfight erupted in Lebanon's central Bekaa Valley only days after Resolution 1701 was adopted. Israel said that a commando operation was aimed at preventing a fresh shipment of arms from reaching Hizballah guerrillas. Hizballah officials believe that the commandos sought to abduct or kill Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, a prominent Shi'ite cleric and Hizballah official with close ties to Iran...
...Whatever the motive, Israel's raid brought swift criticism from U.N. officials, who went on to suggest that the cease-fire in Lebanon could remain fragile not only for days or weeks, but for months to come. Perhaps ominously, that's the way HIzballah sees it, too. As one Hizballah official told TIME this week: "The other shoe can drop any time. We know it. Israel knows it. The CIA knows it. [Resolution 1701] is a superficial solution and it's not going to work." Without stronger efforts to support the peace, both Hizballah, and the average Lebanese still fearing...
...more than a week, officials at France's Foreign and Defence Ministries have been doing a valiant but thankless spin job trying to justify France's miserly contribution to the beefed-up UN peacekeeping force for south Lebanon. An additional 200 men was regularly touted as "a doubling of the French UN contingent," and much was made of the 1700 military personnel offshore on French ships shuttling refugees to Cyprus. " We're the only country that has sent any new troops to UNIFIL so far," bristled one Defense Ministry official earlier this week. "The Americans are nowhere to be seen...
...French battalions - 1,600 troops - to the UN mission. Chirac, in a televised address against the lush background of the Elysee Palace, said he had upped the number after receiving clarifications from the UN that the force's chain of command would be " simple and direct" and assurances from Lebanon and Israel "that French troops would be able to fulfil their mission on the ground...