The Failure of UNIFIL

The UN’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as well as France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Ireland’s Taoiseach Simon Harris, and other leaders have condemned what they describe as the IDF’s “deliberate” attacks on UNIFIL. There have been no “deliberate” attacks by the IDF on UNIFIL personnel, but only a handful of accidents, the result of Hezbollah operatives positioning themselves very close — in some cases only 20 meters away — to UNIFIL troops.

Guterres says such attacks “may constitute a war crime.” Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN undersecretary general for peace operations, has told the UN Security Council that the “safety and security” of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon is “increasingly in jeopardy. Peacekeepers have been confined to their bases with significant periods of time in shelter,” he said, adding that UNIFIL was ready to support all efforts towards a diplomatic solution.

“UNIFIL is mandated to support the implementation of resolution 1701, but we must insist that it is for the parties themselves to implement the provisions of this resolution,” he told an emergency meeting of the 15-member council.

More on UNIFIL’s failures can be found here: “UNIFIL’s failure means it must leave or reform,” by Yaakov Lappin, JNS, October 14, 2024:

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has utterly failed in its core mission of monitoring Hezbollah’s activities in southern Lebanon and enforcing  U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which bans non-government military forces in Southern Lebanon (U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 calls for the disbanding of all non-state armed forces anywhere in Lebanon).

UN Security Council resolution 1701, passed in 2006, gives UNIFIL a mandate to help the Lebanese army keep its southern border area with Israel free of weapons or armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese state. But for the past 18 years, UNIFIL has not been able to perform its assigned task. Hezbollah was to have been removed from the area between the Blue Line — the border between Israel and Lebanon —and the Litani River. But Hezbollah has not only remained in the area, but has massively increased its storehouse of weapons in the area, and built a network of tunnels extending from the area close to the Blue Line into Israel, without UNIFIL managing to prevent any of Hezbollah’s extensive preparations for war.

“‘Unacceptable’: World reacts as Israel fires at UN peacekeepers in Lebanon,” Al Jazeera, October 11, 2024:

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Al Jazeera that the attack was a “very serious” development.

Tenenti explained that Israel had previously asked the peacekeepers to move from “certain positions” near the border, but “we decided to stay because it’s important for the UN flag to fly in [the] south of Lebanon”.

The UN flag in southern Lebanon may fly, but it is a constant reminder not of UNIFIL’s effectiveness; rather, it testifies to the ineffectiveness of UNIFIL, that has failed completely to fulfill its mandate to push the armed forces of Hezbollah north of the Litani River.

UNIFIL has been a total failure, morally and geopolitically. In the 18 years during which its troops have been stationed in Lebanon, the group has been unable, or unwilling, to fulfill its mandate of pushing Hezbollah north of the LItani River. Hezbollah pays no attention to UNIFIL, which has never dared to take on the terror group. Instead of moving north of the Litani River, as required by UNSC Resolution 1701, Hezbollah has been steadily increasing the number of its combatants, and its vast storehouses of weapons, between the Litani and the Blue Line. UNIFIL is worse than ineffectual. Its presence in southern Lebanon has provided Hezbollah with 10,000 human shields that help protect it from IDF attacks. UNIFIL in Lebanon has done no good and much harm. Time for the Western democracies to consider shutting it down.