At the end of July, the Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley said on a television interview that the Michelle Bachelet Government had been sounded off by European countries on the possibility of this country taking part in a military stabilization force on the Lebanese/Israel border.
President Bachelet was outraged following the revelations of Israel's killings of dozens of innocent civilians in Qana a small village in southern Lebanon. She also expressed her frustration at the inability of the United Nations Security Council in bringing a cease-fire to the region.
And surprisingly Bachelet expressed her government's willingness to take part in a UN peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, that can bring peace and stabilization to Lebanon.
On August 1, in a heated special meeting of Congress to study the Lebanese and Israeli situation, the Lower House of Parliament agreed in principle to give the government the go-ahead to volunteer Chile to take part in UNIFIL.
Chile later said it would not take part in UNIFIL, but it has not ruled out the taking part in the future should the UN require its Armed Forces.
On August 2, I spoke for a radio report with Chile based international analyst Armen Kouyoumdjian. He discusses Chile’s capacity of sending its military to be part of UNIFIL. Kouyoumdjian discusses Chile’s current position on Venezuela’s desire to join the UN Security Council and Chile’s intention of signing the Rome Treaty that created the International Criminal Court.
At the same time, Chile has a large contingent of UN troops stationed in Haiti, and smaller troops in Bosnia, Cyprus and Pakistan. And earlier took part in the East Timor UN peacekeeping force by providing air coverage.
