The United Nations said Thursday it is considering how to maintain a presence in Lebanon once the mandate of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force expires at the end of the year.
“In terms of the post-UNIFIL, we're currently in the process of working on these options," said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, as quoted by euronews.
He added that the Lebanese government has been “very clear that they would want to keep a UN presence."
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon has operated between Israel and Lebanon since 1978. It currently has nearly 8,200 troops from 47 countries.
The UN Security Council voted last August to allow one final extension of UNIFIL’s mandate until December 31, 2026. The decision came after pressure from Israel and the United States to end the mission, despite Lebanon’s request to prolong it.
UNIFIL has recently found itself amid fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The peacekeeping force has lost five troops in recent days, including two French nationals and three Indonesians.
Lebanon entered the war on March 2 when the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist group began firing rockets into Israel following US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran.
Lacroix told reporters in Geneva that any future UN uniformed mission in southern Lebanon would require approval by the Security Council in New York.
The Security Council has asked for options regarding a possible post-UNIFIL presence, and “we must present these recommendations...before 1 June," he said.
While declining to detail the options under discussion, Lacroix said any future mission would likely be smaller than UNIFIL.
Lacroix said the Lebanese government would likely want to retain “a number of capacities....which we have been providing," including monitoring, reporting, observing and liaising.
“A durable solution to the problem will have to take into account the security needs of Lebanon and of Israel," he said, according to euronews.
The mission has been sporadically caught in the crosshairs of both Israel and Hezbollah over the last several years.
In October of 2024, the IDF revealed that approximately 25 rockets and missiles had been launched at Israeli communities and IDF troops from Hezbollah’s terrorist compounds embedded near UNIFIL posts in southern Lebanon, exploiting their proximity to UN forces. One of the attacks resulted in the deaths of two IDF soldiers.
As a result of these attacks, the IDF conducted strikes near UNIFIL posts, making sure to warn the peacekeepers beforehand and requesting that they vacate the posts. Nevertheless, UNIFIL accused Israel of deliberately targeting its peacekeepers.