For those UN “peacekeepers” in Lebanon, the fun and games have ended. There’s serious work to be done. Like ensuring that Hizbullah disarms engaging in a confrontation with the IDF.
UN and Israeli tanks have been involved in a brief face-off on a road in southern Lebanon where the Israeli army has been setting up checkpoints.
Four French Leclerc tanks with UN peacekeepers moved up the hill to stand 500 meters (yards) from the entrance to the border village of Marwaheen, as two Israeli Merkava tanks operated nearby on Lebanese soil.
Standing some 50 meters from each other, the tanks were locked in a 20-minute face-off, the first between the Israeli army and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which has been boosted to oversee the current truce.
Needless to say, this confrontation ended the same way that all confrontations involving the French end.
The French tanks then withdrew from the area, as observers of the UN Truce Supervision Organisation deployed in the area.
Update: Here’s an AP picture from the confrontation.
A French U.N. peacekeeper, left, gestures as he talks to an Israeli
soldier after French peacekeepers with Leclerc tanks blocked an Israeli
tracked armoured vehicle and jeeps from penetrating deeper into
Lebanese territory near the southern village of Marwaheen, Lebanon,
Thursday Sept. 28, 2006. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
I can’t work out whether the French “peacekeeper” is crying, or doing a mime.
