1:09 p.m.
NAQOURA, Lebanon — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon today, a day after Italy and Turkey moved to join the international force there.
Mr. Annan and his entourage landed in Naqoura, a town on the Mediterranean coast about two miles north of the Israeli border, in two white U.N. helicopters. The town is the headquarters of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
The U.N. chief was in Lebanon on the first leg of an 11-day Mideast tour that would take him to Israel and also to Syria and Iran — Hezbollah’s main benefactors.
Mr. Annan was briefed by French Maj. Gen. Alain Pellegrini, the UNIFIL commander, and other top officials, then reviewed an honor guard of U.N. troops in blue berets standing at attention on the lawn inside the U.N.’s white-walled compound.
He laid a wreath at a monument for peacekeepers killed in Lebanon since UNIFIL deployed here in 1978. Muslim and Christian clergymen said prayers, and the U.N. chief stood in silence in front of a display of portraits of those killed, including four UNIFIL members killed in an Israeli air strike on their base in Khiam on July 25.
The U.N. chief shook hands with members of the 2,000-member force, which is being expanded to 15,000 under the U.N. resolution that halted fighting between Israel and Hezbollah on Aug. 14.
Mr. Annan reiterated his calls for Hezbollah to release two Israeli soldiers whose July 12 capture spurred the fighting and for Israel to lift its air and sea blockade on Lebanon.
“We need to resolve the issue of the abducted soldiers very quickly,” he said. “We need to deal with the lifting of the embargo — sea, land and air — which for the Lebanese is a humiliation and an infringement on their sovereignty.”
He later traveled to Jerusalem for talks with Israeli leaders.
Meanwhile, an Italian task force led by the country’s only aircraft carrier, the Giuseppe Garibaldi, sailed from southern Italy for Lebanon. Italy yesterday approved sending 2,500 troops, the largest national contingent so far.
Spain’s Defense Ministry said a marine unit was ordered to prepare for deployment to Lebanon to join the U.N. peacekeeping force.
A battalion of 900 French soldiers will arrive in Lebanon in mid-September to help boost the U.N. peacekeeping force, the Defense Ministry said. France has about 400 soldiers in UNIFIL and plans to expand that number to 2,000.
Turkey’s Cabinet decided yesterday in favor of sending peacekeepers.
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