Baltic countries won't send troops to Lebanon

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Estonia and Lithuania said Thursday they would not send troops to the UN's peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, while Latvia said it was unlikely to take part in the mission. The three Baltic countries, which joined NATO and the European Union in 2004, expressed concerns about overextending their overseas forces. All three currently have troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Estonia's Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said in a statement that the Baltic state did not have the capacity to send troops to Lebanon as it was engaged in other international peacekeeping missions. Lithuania on Thursday said it, too, had decided not to deploy its troops to war-torn Lebanon. Latvia, however, is still undecided whether it will send a contingent to the Mideast.