• Published 00:00 22.08.07
  • Latest update 00:00 22.08.07

Germany extends naval peacekeeping mission off Lebanon coast

960 German sailors taking part in UN mission to maintain peace in Lebanon following last summer's war between Israel, Hezbollah.

By The Associated Press Tags: Germany UNIFIL Lebanon

BERLIN - The German Cabinet on Wednesday approved a one-year extension to its peacekeeping mission with the United Nations in Lebanon where it has led naval patrols off the country's coast.

The Foreign Ministry said the Cabinet at its regular weekly meeting decided to extend the mission to September 2008. It still requires approval by parliament, which is expected to vote in mid-September.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) deployed in southern Lebanon following the war between Israel and Hezbollah last summer to maintain peace.

Germany last September sent eight ships to join the Lebanon mission in the country's largest naval deployment since World War II.

It currently has 960 sailors with the mission, designed to prevent arms reaching Hezbollah guerrillas by sea.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government ruled out sending combat troops to try to ensure that German soldiers would not get caught up in any confrontation with Israeli forces.

German military deployments abroad require parliamentary approval, which typically is renewed on an annual basis.

The head of parliament's foreign affairs committee said that the mission has been a success so far.

That little has happened is a sign that the deployment is successful, Ruprecht Polenz, a member of Merkel's Christian Democrats, said on Suedwestrundfunk radio.

It works preventively as well - potential weapons smugglers know they barely have any chance of smuggling weapons into Lebanon by sea.

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  • 27. 0 0
    sorry
    • wh
    • 23.08.07
    • 00:18

    anymore

  • 26. 0 0
    # 12 karl
    • Axel
    • 23.08.07
    • 00:15

    My best guess is that Jonathan S is from no Frankfurt at all. He tries to impersonate the "self-hating German" as an equivalent to the notorious "self-hating Jew" - but gets always crushed by the fact that a Jew impersonating a German only ridicules himself.

  • 25. 0 0
    bev in toronto
    • wh
    • 23.08.07
    • 00:11

    "my country" you mean canada? count me out.not so full enymoore

  • 24. 0 0
    Germanys peacekeeping Mission
    • bernd Schulligen
    • 23.08.07
    • 00:10

    After the terrible crimes from NAZI-Gemany one thing is absolutly clear, the jewish people has forever some reservations against Germany ,understandably. But, don't forget Israel has a lot of real friends in Germany. If Germany don't send the navy and do nothing, an outcry: the bad ,antisemite,neonazi Germans!!

  • 23. 0 0
    #4 mehmet
    • vic
    • 22.08.07
    • 23:31

    mehmet, why are they doomed? you mentioned in one of your previous "talkbacks" that the israelis have something germanic in them because they come from there - otherwise you cannot explain why they are so good as fighters.... So be logical, presumably it will be a fight between germans and the result can be a tie, not a doom as per your secret wish. I understand it is too hard for you, but hate will not get you anywhere.

  • 22. 0 0
    #10
    • Ron
    • 22.08.07
    • 23:29

    I am afraid Israeli and gratitude really do not belong together. Israeli and shyster maybe.

  • 21. 0 0
    The fairy tale about the German subs, again
    • Jonathan S
    • 22.08.07
    • 23:28

    It seems that the deceiving and cheating from German posters knows no limit. The subs were delivered because Germany was pressured to do so by the US and Israel, after Germany provided Saddam Hussein criminally and shamefully with poisonous gas and missile technology to annihilate Israel. Apparently only few Germans know how narrowly they escaped a catastrophe. If Hussein would have had the courage to use the gas, the US would have boycotted all German products. Apparently Germans were not ashamed at all, when all of Israel was sitting with gas masks for the German gas to arrive. But at the same time, when the missiles hit Israel, Germans took to the streets and protested – not against Saddam, but against Israel!

  • 20. 0 0
    Crazy Hannah
    • Hannah
    • 22.08.07
    • 23:11

    Now pick up your toys and go and wash those filthy hands. You are such a disgrace to the Hannah family.

  • 19. 0 0
    hehe Mike
    • ray
    • 22.08.07
    • 23:08

    does hatred of Israel eat you up so much?

  • 18. 0 0
    hamas hanna
    • bev
    • 22.08.07
    • 22:57

    The psychopath is once again thinking that she is God. My country, and the country she is squatting in, fully support Israel.

  • 17. 0 0
    israel patrols its own coastline....
    • Avi
    • 22.08.07
    • 22:47

    ...with submarines sponsered 100% by the german government. You can see thise 2 nice greenish subs from carmel. all israel had to buy themselves were the hebrew stickers for the controls. ISrael stands 100% on its own feet?

  • 16. 0 0
  • 15. 0 0
    #6, Mike
    • Hannah
    • 22.08.07
    • 19:39

    The so-called Israelis have no understanding whatsoever of your very important point: their motto is 'gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, and more gimme'.

  • 14. 0 0
    #1, Jonathan S.
    • Hannah
    • 22.08.07
    • 19:36

    It apparently comes as a big surprise to you that the rest of the world is not marching to the beat of so-called Israel. Get used to it: as long as it lasts, the USofA is your only friend. All other nations are either hostile to the zionist entity, or are hugely sceptical, and are watching you very, very closely. Remember, the same UN who gave you a footprint in the Middle East which you have enlarged significantly through the means of violence and landtheft are also capable of taking it away and giving it back to its rightful owners: the Palestinian people.

  • 13. 0 0
    Stupid Germany
    • Dav
    • 22.08.07
    • 18:59

    Israel got 4 Submarines from Germany for free an. Merkel, disarm Israel not Hisbollah.

  • 12. 0 0
  • 11. 0 0
    #2/4
    • martin
    • 22.08.07
    • 18:38

    ...they would not. Well, I don't see the intention of the IDF-flights menacing the boats. But, this is the kind of situation why german officials refused to accept Olmert's "invitation" of german troops at the land-border to Libanon. One main question was about "what happens if a german(!) soldier fires on an IDF soldier by accident or by self-defense"!!! They decided that a german soldier has nothing to do in Isreal or near its borders. Ok, it might be quite a lot of work for Ha Aretz zu write about the german beasts....

  • 10. 0 0
    Israeli gratitude (#6, 7)
    • Simon Epstein
    • 22.08.07
    • 18:36

    While we can't really expect Israelis to express any gratefulness to Germany, although the country was built with German restitution money, the noted attitude is still worrisome. Look at all the hatred for the British, who were the only ones saving the Yishuv from the murderous Nazi onslaught. We also took in many Jewish refugees (for example in operation "Kindertransport") during the holocaust, many more than the US. In return, our soldiers and administrators were bombed in terrorist attacks, and Britain was vilified as an oppressor. Not to mention France which built the Israeli nuclear industry and early army.

  • 9. 0 0
    Jonathan S
    • Espart
    • 22.08.07
    • 18:25

    Germany is a sovereign nation and is free to pursue any sort of relationship with any country it deems profitable. Any country's political problem with Israel should not and cannot make them 'rouge states'. Lastly,the announcement of a repetition of holocaust is a news to me. Dont believe your own fear borne exaggeration.

  • 8. 0 0
    Jonathan's paranoia (#1)
    • Mordechai Margalit
    • 22.08.07
    • 18:11

    You don't make sense. Sounds like AIPAC or Kach to me. If Germany would like not to disturb its good relationships with Syria and Iran, why to send any troops to Lebanon's coast? Trust me, there is no achievement, propaganda or otherwise, to be gained by sending anything to the Middle East. Everyone knows it's a waste of money and resources and counts for nothing. The Germans are actually kind out of pity for the locals.

  • 7. 0 0
    # 6 mike
    • Axel
    • 22.08.07
    • 17:36

    A poster once boasted to me that he never boarded a Lufthansa flight at Ben-Gurion airport. When I mentioned that probably the El Al terminal was constructed from German reparation money, the line went dead.

  • 6. 0 0
    Bite the hand that feeds you
    • Mike
    • 22.08.07
    • 17:17

    I cannot understand the criticism if Germany. Isreal exists largely from German handouts.

  • 5. 0 0
    Trying to stop smuggling is futile
    • Realist
    • 22.08.07
    • 17:05

    The US has tried to stop drugs and Mexicans from being smuggled over the boarder for years without success. It is unrealistic that you can stop Hezbollah from smuggling weapons. It can be slowed down but never stopped. Just like the 2nd war in Lebenon, you need to set realistic goals if you want to reach them.

  • 4. 0 0
    if IDF attacks Germans, it is doomed
    • mehmet
    • 22.08.07
    • 16:34

    The Germans would not hesitate to defend themselves. And the Germans would not listen to the lies such as a stray torpedo or something, they would shoot, they would shoot to kill.

  • 3. 0 0
    Jonathan got it right
    • Jack
    • 22.08.07
    • 16:15

    on the money!! The only thing the Germans are doing down there is wasting Diesel and firing putt putt shots in the water and feeling big. What a joke!

  • 2. 0 0
    WITH A HIGH RISK TO BE ATTACKED BY IDF
    • indrajaya
    • 22.08.07
    • 15:07

    ...a one-year extension to its peacekeeping mission with the United Nations ... With a high risk to be attacked by IDF like what had happened to them last year? I think it will be fair enough to give them full authority to retaliate if being attacked by IDF again.

  • 1. 0 0
    The German hoax mission
    • Jonathan S
    • 22.08.07
    • 14:38

    The mission of the German navy is a big success? Yes, it is a great propaganda achievement. In reality, not a single bullet was confiscated, not a single smuggling of arms intercepted. It was never intended to do so. Germany with its excellent relationship with the rogue regime in Damascus knew very well, that arms smuggling would go trough the wide open Syrian border. Germany did not want to send ground forces, not out of fear of confrontation with Israeli forces, but because Germany is afraid to harm its good relations with Syria and Hizbullah. And the navy hoax mission serves another aim: to hide the fact that Germany is the closest trade partner in the West of the mullahs in Tehran and extremely helpful with hardware for the nuclear programme of Iran, developed for a new Holocaust that has been announced on various occasions. As such, the deceiving mission of the German navy may be termed to be successful.