UNIFIL resolution delayed as Lebanon-demanded points dropped
The U.N. Security Council overnight failed to agree a resolution for extending the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for another year, as France reportedly presented a new draft that drops changes requested by Lebanon.
The mandate of UNIFIL expires at midnight Thursday/Friday and the Security Council will convene anew at 5pm Beirut time. Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has meanwhile returned to Beirut from New York.
According to al-Akhbar newspaper, the French presented “a different draft that reiterated that U.N. forces do not need a permission from anyone to carry out declared and undeclared patrols and access any point they want to verify so-called Resolution 1701 violations.”
“As for the file of the town of Ghajar, the French endorsed the Israeli recommendation that was submitted through the Americans, Britons and Emiratis and calls for not mentioning the (Lebanese town of) al-Mari at all, seeing as the enemy has submitted an intervention stressing that Ghajar is very distant from al-Mari. The draft also does not label the Israeli forces as occupation forces but rather mentions ‘Israeli presence,’” al-Akhbar added.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan meanwhile warned that Israel is “nearing the launch of a military operation in Lebanon due to Hezbollah’s escalation of its activities on the border.”
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