UN Security Council set to renew Lebanon peacekeepers for final time

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The United Nations Security Council will vote on Thursday to extend a long-running peacekeeping mission in Lebanon until the end of 2026, when the operation will then begin a year-long "orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal," diplomats said.

The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), established in 1978, patrols Lebanon's southern border with Israel. The mandate for the operation is renewed annually, and its current authorization expires on August 31.

The 15-member council is set to adopt a French draft resolution after a compromise was reached with the United States, a veto-wielding council member who told a closed-door meeting last week that UNIFIL should only be extended for one final year, said diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The draft text "requests UNIFIL to cease its operations on 31 December 2026 and to start from this date and within one year its orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal of its personnel, in close consultation with the Government of Lebanon with the aim of making Lebanon Government the sole provider of security in southern Lebanon."

UNIFIL's mandate was expanded in 2006, following a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah, to allow peacekeepers to help the Lebanese army keep parts of the south free of weapons or armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese state.

That has sparked friction with Hezbollah, which effectively controls southern Lebanon despite the presence of the Lebanese army. Hezbollah is a heavily armed party that is Lebanon's most powerful political force.

The United States brokered a truce in November between Lebanon and Israel following more than a year of conflict sparked by the war in Gaza.

The U.S. is now seeking to promote a plan for Hezbollah's disarmament. Washington is linking the plan to a phased Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, while also promoting a U.S.- and Gulf-backed economic development zone in Lebanon's south aimed at reducing Hezbollah's reliance on Iranian funding.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Nia Williams)

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