Australia wouldn't support a new international force in southern Lebanon unless it had the strength and will to disarm Hezbollah, the prime minister said yesterday, after his government decided to withdraw 12 troops from there.
"It's no good sending a token force there, and I make it clear that Australian forces will never be part of a token force because it would be too dangerous," Prime Minister John Howard told Perth Radio 6PR.
Defense Minister Brendan Nelson said the decision to withdraw the troops was made Wednesday but declined to say whether the pullout had occurred yet.
The withdrawal comes after four UN observers were killed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.
"Late yesterday we made a decision to bring our 12 Australian Defense Force personnel back from southern Lebanon to Beirut where, of course, it is important that they continue to work with our Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials," Nelson told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
"Southern Lebanon in particular is a chaotic environment; it is a war zone," he added.
Nelson's office issued a statement saying the 12 were unarmed logistics specialists sent to the area last week to help evacuate Australian citizens.
Another 11 Australian military observers attached to the UN Truce Supervision Organization, with which Australia has been involved since 1956, would remain, the statement said.
Israel said it intends to establish a "security zone" that would be free of Hezbollah guerrillas across the Lebanon border which it would maintain until the arrival of an international force with muscle to be deployed in a wider swath of southern Lebanon -- as opposed to the UN force already there that has failed to prevent the violence.
In Rome, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said participants at a daylong conference on the Middle Eastern crisis agreed on Wednesday on the need for a strong international force under a UN mandate. Italy, Turkey and Spain said they might send troops.
Howard said he supported such a beefed-up force with a long-term focus.
"If the international community is serious about providing a lasting settlement, it's got to have a big enough force with enough capacity to disarm Hezbollah because if it doesn't, nothing is going to change," Howard said.
"If the world community is serious, it would put together a force of tens of thousands and that force will act as an effective buffer and it will have the power and the will to disarm Hezbollah," he added.
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