UNSC to Deny Lebanese Demands for UNIFIL Mandate Renewal

August 18, 2023
Al-Markaziyya
(Translated from Arabic: https://www.mtv.com.lb/News/مــحــلــيــات/1382866/عشية-التجديد-لليونيفيل----هل-يفرض-لبنان-مطالبه-

Al-Markaziyya Agency reports that the [Lebanese] Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Abdallah Bou-Habib, will be heading to New York next Tuesday to participate in the consultations concerning the one-year renewal of the mandate of UNIFIL (United Interim Force in Lebanon) beginning September 1. The Minister is expected to urge the Security Council member states to accede to Lebanon’s demands to abrogate the 2022 renewal resolution number 2650 and re-instate the measure of joint UNIFIL-Lebanese Army patrols.

Diplomatic sources describe Bou-Habib’s mission and the permanent Lebanese delegation at the UN as a difficult undertaking, since member states have become convinced that the Lebanese state has refrained from implementing resolution 1701 pertaining to the removal of [Hezbollah's] illegal weapons, particularly after Hezbollah admitted it owned the weapons-carrying truck that flipped and caused the incident in the town of Kahhaleh.

The United States is trying, through its permanent delegate, Linda Thomas Greenfield, who will be chairing as President of the Security Council the UNIFIL renewal session in late August, to give UNIFIL greater powers and enlarge the scope of its surveillance and deterrence of Hezbollah.

Greenfield is leading discussions in closed meetings on the issue, which are intensifying by the day before the August 31 deadline when UNIFIL’s mandate expires, with a tougher stance for expanding UNIFIL’s missions, particularly after the Kahhaleh incident, including denouncing the weapons of illegitimate organizations that threaten the stability of Lebanon and the region. There is a will on the part of the UNSC to enable UNIFIL within the area of its jurisdiction to safely conduct its tasks, facilitate the free movement of its soldiers, and condemn any attempt to restrict the movements of the international force, or threaten it, harass it, or attack it.

A Western source tells Al-Markaziyya that UNIFIL’s presence, as will be expressed in its new mandate, must be accompanied by official Lebanese guarantees for its protection, including conducting transparent investigations leading to sanctioning all those who attack these forces and those who were involved in the murder of the Irish soldier last December. The source further said that the Security Council will stress in its new resolution, more than ever before, the need to deny any party the ability to carry out activities that undermine the stability of the Blue Line. The new resolution will also emphasize the need to enable the Lebanese Armed Forces to assert their authority over the entire territory of Lebanon.

For its part, Lebanese diplomacy will try to take a new approach in its discussions with the decision-makers in the Security Council, in particular the leading drafter of the resolution, France, as well as all participating member states in the drafting of the new resolution, namely to express Lebanon’s readiness to hold the aggressors against UNIFIL accountable, and to commit to the freedom of movement of UNIFIL in coordination with the Lebanese Army in conformity with resolution 1701, without modifying the scope of its tasks and its specific rules of engagement.

Bou-Habib’s presence in New York aims to influence the Security Council members prior to the adoption of the draft and its conversion into the final official blue version.