Beirut, Lebanon Smart negotiations on the scope and scale of a 42-year-old UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon are set to run all the way to a session of the FNSC on Friday (UNSC) to renew its mandate.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been stationed on the southern Lebanese border during the country’s civil war since 1978, and was rebuilt after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The force’s one-year mandate expires on August 31.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has been pushing for years for changes in the mission’s mandate that would reduce the number of troops, now at roughly 10,000, and allow the force to have more freedom of movement in the border area that is largely controlled by Hezbollah.
Together with Israel, the US has stated that UNIFIL is ineffective in implementing UNSC Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war and called for the removal of all armed groups in the south other than the Lebanese army.
Hezbollah maintains its heavily armed presence.
Lebanese officials and Hezbollah have meanwhile criticized UNIFIL for failing to stop near-daily Israeli encroachments on Lebanese sovereignty over air, sea and land and pointing to Israel’s continued occupation of Lebanese territory as a reason for maintaining an armed struggle .
“Last year, negotiations on renewal were difficult. This year it has been twice as difficult,” a diplomatic source told Al Jazeera. “It’s an election year that Trump wants to show he’s on top, and Israel is trying to get what they can get from this administration.
“There is a chance can not be renewed – you never know with this administration, “said the source.
‘Red lines’
Lebanon has approved the renewal of the mandate without changes, and is working with allies at the UNSC, particularly France, to maintain the UNIFIL mandate as it stands.
At least two concepts of mandate renewal have been rejected in the past week. France submitted another vote on Wednesday.
This year, critics of the mandate have pointed to a number of border security incidents that have left UNIFIL powerless to stop or meaningfully evaluate.
In the past month alone, Israel has twice accused southern border areas in response to alleged Hezbollah activity – once an infiltration attempt, and the second time, on Tuesday night, live fire on an Israeli patrol.
Hezbollah denied the first incident in late July, but did not deny the second.
Following the July incident, UNIFIL has promised to investigate what happened. But the diplomatic source said “there were no conclusive findings and nothing really happened”.
UNIFIL spokeswoman Andrea Tenenti did not respond to a request for comment on last month’s investigation into the confrontation.
‘Powder barrel’
The work of UNIFIL is also often hindered by farmers and villagers who do not allow themselves to enter parts of the south, such as by private property belonging to citizens or NGO Green Without Borders directed by Hezbollah, who bombed Israel on Tuesday .
Former Lebanese Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman said in a June opinion piece that these activities “are all inextricably linked to Hezbollah”.
If its requirements are not met, the US has threatened to veto the renewal, refuse the power, or shorten its mandate to six months.
But an official Lebanese source told Al Jazeera UNIFIL is doing important work, despite the “red lines” that were set up for “private property in the south, which is a problem of our sovereignty”.
The source said that regular tripartite meetings between the Lebanese and Israeli militaries, facilitated by the UN on the southern border, help to ease tensions.
The source also said that while the mandate was incomplete, it had brought fragile calm to a region that was previously synonymous with instability.
“A lot of people don’t remember this now, but before 1978 it was south as the Wild Wild West. Anyone with a rocket or bomb could go to the border and do whatever they wanted,” the official source said.
“In her [UNIFIL’s] absence, it becomes a powder keg where anything can happen, and that is not in the interests of everyone – neither Lebanon, nor Israel, nor America. “
.
