BEIRUT, Nov 4: Israel is ignoring deals on the policing of Lebanese airspace and is struggling to accept international peacekeepers in the region, a German deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying on Saturday.

“That Israel is still trying to control the airspace over Lebanon despite the international presence of French, Italian and other soldiers, runs contrary to every agreement,” Gernot Erler told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

“The Israelis have so far rejected every internationalisation of their security. But this is now happening with the UNIFIL mission. It's evidently something the Israeli armed forces take some getting used to.”

Germany assumed command of a U.N. naval force off Lebanon last month and has sent eight ships and 1,000 service personnel to join the international peace operation in the region.

Erler's comments, published in a preview of Sunday's edition, follow incidents in which Israeli air force encounters with German forces provoked so-called “misunderstandings”.

The first, late last month, involved two planes which a German paper said had fired twice as they flew over a German navy ship. It was followed by a separate run-in with the German navy in an area used by the Israeli air force for training.—Reuters