Lebanon is in economic trouble, and sectarian tensions between Shia, Sunni, Christian and Druze have paralyzed the government. Lebanon’s real power, Hezbollah, is under the direct control of Iran, while Lebanon’s weak and obedient Armed Forces (LAF) coordinate with Hezbollah.
Both Iran and Hezbollah disbanded “all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias” and called for “strict respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity, and political independence of Lebanon under the sole and exclusive authority of the Lebanese government”. Proposition 1559 is ignored. “
Hezbollah’s stronghold in southern Lebanon is to be monitored by a 10,000 multi-national United Nations force (UNIFIL). Its mandate is to work with the LAF to keep Hezbollah’s unauthorized forces out of southern Lebanon, prevent arms transfers to Hezbollah, disarm all militias, and prevent attacks against Israel. UNIFIL’s overall mission has failed with few exceptions since it began forty years earlier with the Taif Agreement which ended the Lebanese Civil War.
UNSC adopted last month Resolution 2591, extending UNIFIL’s mandate in southern Lebanon for another year. The resolution urges all parties to “ensure that UNIFIL’s freedom of movement in all its operations and access to all parts of UNIFIL’s Blue Line is fully respected and unhindered…”. It condemned “all attempts to ban in the strongest possible terms”. [its] freedom of movement.” and it “reaffirmed the need for an effective and sustainable deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces in southern Lebanon.”
Even after Israel publicly informed UNIFIL of their existence, UNIFIL was too intimidated to uncover any of the six border tunnels in Israel dug by Hezbollah.
The Security Council was too timid to call Hezbollah or Iran by name in the resolution. The LAF will continue to fulfill Hezbollah’s wishes, or else it will face its wrath. So what have the 10,000 UNIFIL peacekeepers been doing for the past 15 years since the UNSC passed Resolution 1701 after the second Lebanon war with Israel?
They were believed to have created an area south of the Litani River, free of Hezbollah and completely under the control of the LAF. Unfortunately, the LAF, for its very existence, has become a slave to Hezbollah’s wishes. While Hezbollah continues to directly intimidate UNIFIL personnel, LAF cannot work with UNIFIL to monitor Hezbollah’s activities that threaten Israel. Recently, Hezbollah vetoed an effort to upgrade UNIFIL’s Blue Line surveillance with new surveillance cameras.
Hezbollah has created a no-go zone for UNIFIL patrols with the help of LAF. All patrols must be coordinated with the LAF in advance in conjunction with their Hezbollah overlords, lest UNIFIL finds some of the thousands of missiles, many of which are hidden in civilian homes – which are war crimes.
The LAF facilitates freedom of operations for Hezbollah by designating areas out-of-bounds to UNIFIL troops for inspection. Intelligence units of the LAF, which sometimes interact with Hezbollah, attempt to intervene to resolve minor incidents, but most of the time, they are only in lockstep with Hezbollah. The LAF also cannot guarantee that any equipment and weapons confiscated by Hezbollah operatives from UNIFIL personnel will be returned.
Sources reporting on the UNIFIL-Hezbollah conflict are mainly from the Lebanese media. You will not find them on the home page of the UNIFIL website because UNIFIL chooses to highlight its aid to the Lebanese people and the LAF, not the impotence to fulfill its mandate. UNIFIL does not want to target its back to identify Hezbollah. UNIFIL has not stopped any missile transfers from Iran to Hezbollah since 2006, at the end of the Second Lebanon War.
Even after Israel publicly informed UNIFIL of their existence, UNIFIL was too intimidated to uncover any of the six border tunnels in Israel dug by Hezbollah. The latest proposal also failed to mention that there were six rocket attacks off South Lebanon in the past two months.
The Hezbollah attack tunnel from Lebanon reaches 80 meters below the ground and 70 meters into Israeli territory. 29 May 2019 (Avihu Shapira / IDF Spokesperson Office)
Hezbollah no longer tries to hide its presence on the Blue Line with Israel. Iranian, Hezbollah and Palestinian flags adorn the border fence. Military ceremonies are held overlooking Israeli communities, while more fortifications with vantage points overlooking Israel are built under the pretext of “Green Without Borders”, an environmental organization. Every day, we see Hezbollah operatives gathering intelligence and filming Israelis, even along the LAF.
Where was UNIFIL all this time? See no evil, speak no evil, report no evil, should be the motto of UNIFIL and LAF.
The real question is what is the mission of UNIFIL in the 21st century. Is it to keep the peace or is it to enforce it? If it is the former, UNIFIL’s success is minimal, only because of Hezbollah’s patience at the direction of Iran, waiting for an opportune time to open its missile arsenal to attack Israel. But if it is the latter, and South Lebanon “must be free of unauthorized personnel, weapons and other assets,” then UNIFIL has been a serious failure.
UNIFIL’s presence in Lebanon goes back decades. That is why it is necessary that UNIFIL should end the trend that is fulfilling its mission. It is time to state frankly, UNIFIL is ineffective and completely afraid of Hezbollah. Could the UNIFIL force’s half-billion dollar a year subsidy be anything more than any other international bureaucratic economic boon?
The only option, other than completely eliminating Unifil’s presence, is to radically change its mission. Since it is nearly impossible for UNIFIL to fulfill its current mission, it would be more wise to change its mission to simply act as a mediator who can resolve strategic conflicts between Israel and Lebanon on the border, as they passed done in the last 15 years.
Since the US is a significant contributor ($145 million a year) to this ineffective force, it should insist on reducing UNIFIL’s mandate that it can fulfill and dramatically reduce its funding in proportion to the reduced mission. Can do. US administrations on both sides have been deliberately blind to the reality of Lebanon. The American taxpayer must not finance a mission that has not improved the future of Lebanon or brought peace to Israel or the residents of Lebanon. They would be better served by funding a more limited mission.
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Sarit Jehvi is the CEO and founder of Alma, a non-profit independent research and education center specializing in Israel’s security challenges along its northern border.
Eric Mandel is the director of the Middle East Political Information Network (MEPin). He regularly briefs members of Congress and his foreign policy aides. He is the Senior Security Editor for Jerusalem Report/Post and regular contributor to The Hill