BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese prime minister on Friday told a visiting U.N. delegation that his country will need a follow-up force in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel to fill the vacuum once the U.N. peacekeepers’ term expires by the end of next year.
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously in August to terminate the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, at the end of 2026 — nearly five decades after the force was deployed. The multinational force has played a significant role in monitoring the security situation in the region, including during the Israel-Hezbollah war last year.
But it has drawn criticism from officials in President Donald Trump’s administration, which has moved to slash U.S. funding for the operation as Trump remakes America’s approach to foreign policy.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam held talks with the team representing the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council, saying he believes another, follow-up force would help Lebanese troops along the border where they have intensified efforts in the volatile area that witnessed the 14-month war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group.
Salam proposed that a small follow-up force could work much like the U.N. observers force that has been deployed along Syria’s border with Israel since 1974.
There was no immediate response from the U.N. delegation, which arrived in Lebanon after a visit to Syria. Earlier Friday, the delegation also met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who said Lebanon would welcome any country’s decision to keep its forces in southern Lebanon after UNIFIL’s term expires.
Aoun also touted Lebanon’s appointment of former ambassador to Washington, Simon Karam, to head the Lebanese delegation to a previously military-only committee that monitors the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that halted the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
The appointment has angered Hezbollah, whose leader Naim Kassem said in a televised speech later Friday that the appointment of the ex-ambassador was allegedly a “concession” to Israel.
Kassem said it would not change “the enemy’s stance and its aggression,” referring to Israel’s almost daily airstrikes on what the Israeli military says are Hezbollah targets in Lebanon since the ceasefire went into effect in November last year. The U.N. says that the Israeli strikes since the ceasefire have killed 127 civilians.
Israel’s air force carried out a series of airstrikes on Thursday in south Lebanon, saying it struck Hezbollah’s infrastructure. Warnings were issued in advance to evacuate the area.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with Hezbollah firing rockets into Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian Hamas militants. Israel’s response operation that included bombardment and a ground operation last year has severely weakened Hezbollah.
By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press
