Created in 1978, after Israel invaded Lebanon to end Palestinian terrorist attacks from the country, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had its size, budget, and remit expanded dramatically after the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war, when it was tasked with keeping both the IDF and Hizballah out of the southern part of the country. Later this month, UNIFIL’s mandate will be up for renewal at the UN Security Council. Tony Badran argues that, as effective reform is unlikely to occur, the U.S. would do best to use its veto power to dismantle the force:
Over the previous decade and a half of its deployment, UNIFIL has not achieved a single one of the objectives outlined [by the Security Council in 2006]. Let’s start with the more recent flagrant failures. In July, a Hizballah cell infiltrated Israel from the area that UNIFIL is mandated to keep free of any armed personnel. . . . In December 2018, the IDF uncovered a number of commando tunnels that Hizballah dug into Israel, right under UNIFIL’s nose. To this day, UNIFIL has not been able to inspect all the relevant sites for this activity.
UNIFIL is now effectively another UN aid agency. The mission highlights its work with the local population and its delivery of assistance, as recently as the COVID-19 crisis, to municipalities often run by Hizballah.
An inherent flaw in UNIFIL’s mandate lies in its requirement to coordinate with the Lebanese authorities. This renders its work dependent on Hizballah’s acquiescence. Even should the U.S. extract a concession for the force to inspect sites, the structural flaws will remain. So will the aversion of troop-contributing countries to adopt a more aggressive posture, for fear of retaliation.
Read more on Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/terminate-un-interim-force-lebanon-opinion-1526970