Berlin - Germany's parliament is to be asked soon to roll over authorization for the German military to operate abroad in Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and off the coast of Lebanon, Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet decided Wednesday. Germany has a contingent with an upper limit of 4,500 personnel with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. That authorization is to be renewed for a year.
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), a US-led naval operation based in Djibouti to stop terrorists shuttling between the Arabian Peninsula and Somalia, will also be extended by one year under the proposal.
German ships will take part for six more months in a UNIFIL operation to stop arms smuggling by sea into Lebanon, if the cabinet proposals are adopted. The decisions were taken at a cabinet meeting at the government's country guesthouse, Meseberg Palace, near Berlin.
Officials said earlier that the government would not seek renewed authorization for an airborne warning system over Afghanistan.
It has never got off the ground because of objections from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to the planes crossing their airspace. Germany was to have provided crews for airborne warning and control (AWACS) planes.
