Germany Sends Troops to Lebanon

The German cabinet announced on Wednesday that it successfully managed to approve the plans regarding the dispatch of both naval and air forces to Lebanon, with up to 2,400 German personnel to patrol the Lebanese coast in order to prevent potential regroupings of Hezbollah guerillas or their supply with weapons and ammunition.

"Sending troops to the Middle East is for us a historic decision", German Chancellor Angela Merkel commented, referring to the fact that her country has been constantly reluctant to the idea of sending troops to the Middle East region, given the historically linked records of both Germany and Israel, one of the most important players in both past and recent conflict in this part of the world.

Meanwhile, Russia announced that it has decided to make a military troop commitment to Lebanon as well, sending approximately 400 soldiers that would actively take part in reconstruction efforts, related mainly to rebuilding bridges and other severely damaged parts of the infrastructure, following Israel's grim war against Hezbollah guerillas that left 1,200 Lebanese civilians and 157 Israeli ones, dead.

However, the Russian troops would not be part of the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission to Lebanon, whose target is to ensure the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanese soil and the protection of rebuilding efforts of the country, and would thus work independently from it.

As far as the activity of the UNIFIL in Lebanon is concerned, a spokesman for the forces stationed there, Alexander Ivanko, stated that there are approximately 3,500 soldiers in Lebanon at the moment and their number is expected to grow to 5,000 during the weekend, given that more Spanish and French troops are scheduled to arrive. He added that Israeli soldiers are still present in what he labeled as a "snakelike area", located north of the Lebanese-Israeli border, yet he failed in providing additional details with regard to the exact number of these troops.