US plan for Lebanon force seen as 'folly'

Goksel said in an interview with AFP that only "creative diplomacy" could bring an end to the violence, which has cost hundreds of lives, mostly of civilians in Lebanon, since July 12.

"The idea, as it stands, is a folly. The best it can do is buy time and cool tempers," said the veteran of the region who was spokesman for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) between 1979 and 2003.

"It's a bandage, not a solution," said Goksel, who is reputed to know southern Lebanon better than anyone -- bar perhaps Hezbollah itself.

For Goksel, UNIFIL can be beefed up as a peacekeeping force acceptable to all sides in Lebanon. The Shia militant group Hezbollah "can live with that. But Israel wants a fighting force," he said.

The US and British concept of a deterrent force to disarm Hezbollah and prevent it from being resupplied by its backers in Damascus and Tehran would amount to an "occupation force", Goksel warned.

A year after Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, a suicide attack on US marines barracks in Beirut killed 241 soldiers, and 58 French paratroopers of the same multinational force died in a similar attack on their barracks.

For Goksel, the road to peace lies through Damascus.

"If anyone thinks an efficient force will come out of this without a friendly word from Damascus, they do not know the Middle East," he said. "And if you want a favour from Syria, then you have to pay something."