2023-08-26 07:45:45
Yesterday, Friday, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib announced his country’s rejection of a draft draft in the UN Security Council that would grant the United Nations Interim Force in his country (UNIFIL) the right to carry out operations without coordination with the army.
Bou Habib affirmed Lebanon’s rejection of the circulating formula, as it does not indicate the necessity and importance of UNIFIL coordination in its operations with the government represented by the army, as stipulated in the well-known UNIFIL work agreement, according to a statement by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry.
UNIFIL’s operations include day and night patrols, setting up observation points, monitoring the blue line inside the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, and clearing unexploded ordnance and cluster bombs.
UNIFIL also indicates that its close cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces is the key to implementing the Security Council resolution, according to the text published on its website regarding the tasks of its operations in Lebanon.
Bouhabib stressed Lebanon’s refusal to legitimize the transfer of UNIFIL’s mandate from Chapter VI, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for resolving the conflict by peaceful means, to Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, which calls for imposing the resolution by force.
He pointed out that the annual renewal of the international force in the south comes at the request of the Lebanese government, according to the same statement.
UNIFIL was established in 1978, and one of its tasks is to monitor the cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel, and its mandate was expanded through Resolution 1701, which was issued in 2006 following a 33-day war between Hezbollah and the Israeli army, which still occupies part of Lebanese territory.
The UN Security Council or UNIFIL did not issue an immediate comment on the Lebanese Foreign Ministry’s statement.
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