US, Israel oppose new UN force in Lebanon as Security Council weighs post-UNIFIL options, officials tell i24NEWS

Ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting today to discuss a post-UNIFIL landscape for Lebanon, but both Washington and Jerusalem are clear: the priority is to end U.N. peacekeeping efforts there.

As part of its resolution to shut down UNIFIL, the council asked U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to propose options for what comes next. Three options forwarded by Guterres will be discussed today.

They include approximately 5,525 uniformed personnel along the unofficial international border called the Blue Line and up to the strategic Litani River; approximately 3,370 uniformed personnel, combining an unarmed military observer group with protective armed units between the Blue Line and the Litani; and approximately 1,980 uniformed personnel with a limited geographic footprint and with little enforcement capability, focusing more on liaison and reporting functions.

But Israel is adamant the U.N. needs to be kept out altogther.

“We support the implementation of the Security Council resolution to end UNIFIL’s mandate in southern Lebanon, but we oppose the deployment of new international forces in the area. We must not repeat the grave mistake of UNIFIL,” Danny Danon, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, told i24NEWS.

Jerusalem and Washington want to work through the trilateral framework established earlier this year with Beirut.

A U.S. official told i24NEWS this week that the framework, if successfully implemented, will eliminate the need for more international peacekeeping missions in the area, though Washington is leaving the door open for some type of post-UNIFIL international presence in southern Lebanon.

But, the U.S. official said it has to be done in tandem with the goals contained within in the framework, “rather than another so-called interim force that’s not directly invested in a resolution to the conflict.”

A senior U.N. official with deep knowledge of peacekeeping operations told i24NEWS that Washington may try to split the difference.

The parties to the trilateral framework are in the process of selecting a country to provide a verification force to ensure that the so-called pilot zone commitments made by Beirut and Jerusalem are being filled, with a short list of countries being considered.

The U.S. may “decide to come to the council and ask for council mandate for a third-party verification force. So it will be a non-U.N. force, but with the U.N. imprimatur,” the U.N. official said.

The U.N. official noted that Italy, which contributes troops to UNIFIL, including the current ground force commander, is reportedly on the verification force shortlist, and there have been high-level diplomatic and military visits to Italy in recent weeks by Lebanese officials.

The U.S. official said Washington will take pains to avoid anything resembling “UNIFIL-lite.”

Washington won’t be convinced to “rotate out a mission that’s been ineffective for decades and think rotating in a smaller, more restricted one with no time-specific mandate will somehow be of benefit,” the U.S. official said.

Danon told i24NEWS that “The alternatives being proposed” to the Security Council “will not contribute to regional stability. On the contrary, they could provide Hezbollah with a platform to rebuild its strength, just as it did during the UNIFIL era.”

The U.N. official said that “ideally a decision by the Security Council should come sometime in September to allow for the planning of whether there is a follow-on U.N. force after UNIFIL or not,” noting that Hezbollah and Palestinian armed factions in Lebanon, “are also not sitting with their hands crossed. They're positioning themselves, and while they acknowledge that they have lost in the frontal confrontation with Israel, they have not abandoned their plans and ambitions, including to play a significant role in Lebanese society, politics and even security.”

Of note, the official said that “Frankly, I think the paradigm of south and north of the Litani River is no longer valid. It's about the situation in Lebanon as a whole.”

All of those factors are going to shape how the plans for next year’s gradual drawdown from east to west are pieced together, the U.N. official said, including how to handle UNIFIL positions and observation posts along the Blue Line, the main headquarters in Naquora and the pair of sector headquarters.

If there’s a follow-on force, whether it's administered by the United Nations or not, the official said some of those facilities could be handed over to that force. But if there isn’t, then a decision needs to be made, as shutting down the facilities and moving equipment out, only to have to come back later and restart operations, carries a significant financial cost, the U.N. official said.

The Beirut-based U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, or UNSCOL, which is a political mission, could take on some of UNIFIL’s non-military tasks, the U.N. official said.