U.N. Renews Lebanese "Peacekeeping" Mission that has Failed to Halt Hizbollah Prepping for War

The mandate for the U.N.'s peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) was renewed today by the Security Council with only minor changes despite UNIFIL's failure to prevent serious violations of prior UN resolutions by the terrorist organization Hizbollah. The resolution, renewing the mandate of UNIFIL for another year, was adopted unanimously. To make sure there was no misunderstanding, the Italian ambassador pointedly lectured colleagues that Italy and Indonesia were the top troop contributing countries to UNIFIL and the mandate was not being changed.

Despite strong words by U.S. ambassador Nikki Haley about the persistent failure of UNIFIL to prevent and report on the growing presence of Hizbollah weapons and fighters in prohibited areas, the mandate remained as it was at the end of the last Lebanon war in 2006. Since that time , UNIFIL has stood by and watched Hizbollah amass 100,000 rockets pointed at Israel, including in areas south of the Litani River.

The main difference from prior renewals of UNIFIL's mandate is that the new resolution requests the U.N. Secretary-General to "look at ways" to improve UNIFIL's "visible presence" and requests "prompt and detailed reports on violations".

The draft resolution says:

"14. Acting in support of a request from the Government of Lebanon to deploy an international force to assist it to exercise its authority throughout the territory, recalls its authorization to UNIFIL to take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind, to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council, and to protect United Nations personnel, facilities, installations and equipment, ensure the security and freedom of movement of United Nations personnel, humanitarian workers and, without prejudice to the responsibility of the Government of Lebanon, to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence;

15. Requests the Secretary General to look at ways to enhance UNIFIL's efforts as regards paragraph 12 of resolution 1701 (2006) and OP14 of this resolution, including ways to increase UNIFIL's visible presence, including through patrols and inspections, within its existing mandate and capabilities;

16. Recalls the decision that UNIFIL shall assist the government of Lebanon, at its request, as set out in paragraph 14 of resolution 1701 (2006) and within its capabilities, to implement resolution 1701 (2006);
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18. Requests the Secretary-General to continue to report to the Council on the implementation of resolution 1701 (2006), every four months, or at any time as he deems appropriate, and to include in his reporting a prompt and detailed breakdown of all resolution 1701 (2006) violations, prompt and detailed reports on violations of the sovereignty of Lebanon, prompt and detailed reports on the restrictions to UNIFIL's freedom of movement, reports on specific areas where UNIFIL does not access and on the reasons behind these restrictions, potential risks to the cessation of hostilities and UNIFIL's response as well as reports on the implementation of the recommendations of the 2016-2017 Strategic review and on additional identified efficiencies to most appropriately fulfil its mandated tasks; requests the Secretary-General to further develop a reporting mechanism in order to provide concrete and detailed information on the aforementioned issues to the Council;"