ISLAMABAD, Aug 19: Pakistan has in principle decided that it will not send troops to Lebanon at this stage, informed sources said. Pakistan is reluctant to participate in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) largely because under the Security Council Resolution 1701 of August 11, the force has been given the additional mandate of peace enforcement which could involve combat and disarming Hezbollah, the sources said.

A member of the establishment, who did not want to be named, put it rather bluntly: “Given that this UN force has been given the mandate of peace enforcement under chapter 7 of the UN charter it would mean we have to be ready for combat and we certainly do not want that.”

An important official involved in consultations held at the top level remarked: “Why should we be fighting either of the two forces (Hezbollah or Israel), there are no gains for us in it?”

Another source close to the defence establishment pointed out that there were grave political and diplomatic implications of deploying troops in Lebanon. “When we can see there is no advantage on any front, it makes no sense for us to send troops there,” he said.

The view in policymaking institutions in Islamabad and Rawalpindi is that Pakistani troops will not be ‘genuinely welcomed’ by the principal parties to the conflict. “We realise that Israel will have problems with it and Hezbollah too will not be uncomfortable with it,” a source close to the GHQ conceded.

A bureaucrat said the government was conscious of the fact that Syria and Iran were also not in favour of troop deployment from Pakistan. Opposition political parties are also opposed to the idea of Pakistan deploying troops in Lebanon.

According to ISPR, the strength of Pakistani troops in UN peacekeeping missions is 9,500. The country is the leading contributor to peacekeeping missions and its largest contingent, comprising 3,850 troops, is deployed in Congo. Pakistan is not part of any UN peace enforcement mission in a Muslim country. The two Muslim countries where Pakistan is participating in the UN observer missions are Morocco (Western Sahara) and Sudan.