Germany Debates Sending Soldiers to Middle East

Social Democratic Party chief Kurt Beck reignited the debate about Germany contributing soldiers to a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon in an interview with public broadcaster ARD. "There certainly won't be a 'no'," said Beck, whose party is a partner to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) in Germany's ruling coalition.

Beck suggested Germany could help secure the sea or the border to Syria, which he said would prevent German soldiers from coming into conflict with Israeli troops. He was the first high-ranking politician from the coalition parties to suggest Berlin could deploy troops to the Middle East.

His comments were met with sharp disagreement from political opponents.

"I'm telling you in all clarity, other nations are called upon," Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber, who heads the chancellor's sister party, the CSU, told public broadcaster ZDF.

CDU Secretary General Ronald Pofalla said Beck's push was premature. "Anyone who speaks of a Bundeswehr deployment must know that the capacities for further foreign deployments of German troops have largely been exhausted," he commented in the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper.

The opposition Free Democratic party also ruled out a German deployment.

If Israel doesn't mind…

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier laid out the government's position, telling newsmagazine Der Spiegel that the Israeli government and large parts of Israeli society "apparently see no problem in German participation," The cabinet and Bundestag should take that into account when they make a decision, he added.

Both Peter Struck, head of the Social Democrats parliamentary group, and his CDU counterpart Volker Kauder pointed out that the time had not yet come for such a decision to be made.

With Resolution 1701, which the UN Security Council adopted on Friday, the organization plans to deploy up to 15,000 peacekeepers to Lebanon keep the peace between Israel and the Hezbollah once fighting has stopped.

Several weeks ago, Merkel expressed skepticism about German participation in a UN force, indicating that the Bundeswehr's current deployments in DR Congo, the Balkans and Afghanistan had stretched its capacities. Subsequently, Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert explicitly asked that Germany send soldiers.

Germany's highest-ranking officer, Inspector General Wolfgang Schneiderhahn, said over the weekend he didn't rule out German participation. Though the military had no more medics available, in other areas there was more room for movement, he told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper. He rejected the argument that the Bundeswehr was too overstretched for a Middle East deployment.

Around 7,700 German soldiers are currently deployed in foreign missions.