Lebanon needs international force after peacekeepers leave, PM tells UN chief

Lebanese prime minister Nawaf Salam told UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday that Lebanon needed a UN-sponsored international force to stay in the country’s south after the current UN peacekeeping mandate expires.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), which currently counts around 7,500 peacekeepers from 46 countries, has acted as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel since 1978.

But under US pressure, the UN Security Council voted last year to halt the force’s mandate at the end of this year.

Meeting Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York, Salam “stressed the importance of maintaining an international presence under the umbrella of the UN in the south in the post-Unifil phase”, according to a statement from the premier’s office.

This should be in a way that “ensures the continuation of the functions of monitoring, reporting and liaison, contributes to preserving stability, and supports the process of extending the Lebanese state’s authority over all its territory”, Salam added, according to the statement.

Unifil’s looming departure comes as Israel maintains troops in a self-declared “security zone” running around 10km (six miles) deep inside south Lebanon along the border.

Israel launched heavy airstrikes and a ground invasion after Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war in March by attacking Israel in support of the militant group’s backer Iran.

Last week, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told AFP that Lebanon wanted a new force, European or otherwise, to prevent a security vacuum after the peacekeepers depart, but that “the best and most optimal option remains extending Unifil’s mandate”.

The creation of a new force to succeed Unifil was also on the agenda of a meeting last week in Paris between Aoun, French President Emmanuel Macron and King Abdullah II of Jordan.

France and Italy have said they want to set up a multinational coalition to succeed Unifil.

In a June report, Guterres said peacekeepers would be needed after Unifil’s mission expires.

Salam also told Guterres that around 329,000 people are still displaced in Lebanon since the latest conflict erupted, urging support for the humanitarian response.

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