Rubio discusses post-UNIFIL monitoring mission with Macron
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday to discuss security arrangements in southern Lebanon before the U.N. peacekeeper mandate expires on Dec. 31.
The talks focused on replacing the current peacekeeping force with a lighter monitoring system.
"One of the things that we're working on from our perspective is finding the ability to monitor the implementation of the pilot zones," Rubio told reporters.
Pilot zones are areas from which Israel is supposed to withdraw its forces to be replaced by the Lebanese Army, under a U.S.-brokered framework agreement reached in June between Lebanon and Israel.
Rubio added that the monitoring force would not necessarily require troops.
"It doesn't have to be a military mission. It could be a civilian mission," he said. "We have some ideas about how to achieve it, and I think France could be helpful in that regard."
Source: Naharnet
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