July 23, 2006	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 26, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, July 22: Pakistan on Saturday expressed its willingness to participate in a likely UN sanctioned multinational peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.

Foreign Office spokesperson Tasnim Aslam when asked if Pakistan like Indonesia and Malaysia would also be willing to contribute to an expected international peacekeeping force in Lebanon, she said: “Pakistan has been participating in UN mandated peacekeeping missions around the world. We participate in UN peacekeeping missions provided they are sanctioned by a UN Security Council resolution and all the parties involved in the situation accept it.” The spokesperson declared: “And we would be willing to do so under similar conditions in Lebanon as well.”

Responding to a question the Foreign Office spokesperson said there had been no direct contact between the top Pakistani leadership and the UN secretary-general since the onset of the Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Military spokesperson Major-General Shaukat Sultan told Dawn that Pakistan had been participating in UN peacekeeping missions since 1962 and at present it was the world’s largest troop contributor. He said currently more than 10,000 Pakistani troops including observers were deployed in over half a dozen UN peacekeeping missions and added that Pakistan military could easily spare more if required.

Replying to a question about dispatching of troops to Lebanon for a likely UN mandated peacekeeping force, Major-General Sultan said: “Once the government takes a decision and logistics are worked out by the UN it would take us no time to send troops.”

Malaysia, the current chair of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and Indonesia both on Friday expressed their readiness to contribute to a UN deployment of a peacekeeping force in the Middle East.—Q.A.