The UN Security Council has decided to end the peacekeeping operations in Lebanon, in which nearly one thousand Indian troops are deployed. The Council voted yesterday to shut down in two years the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) that has been struggling to keep the peace in southern Lebanon, where Israel confronts the Hezbollah, and the weak Lebanese military is caught in the middle.
The 47-year-old UNIFIL’s mandate that expires this weekend was extended for a final time till the end of 2026, with another year allowed for the “safe and orderly” wind down of the operations. There are currently ten thousand eight hundred peacekeepers in UNIFIL, including 903 from India. The resolution for extending the mandate was crafted carefully by France to avoid a US veto that would have reflected Israel’s opposition to the UNIFIL.
UNIFIL was created by the Council in 1978 with a mandate to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and to help the Lebanese government reestablish its authority in the area.Two Indians, Brigadier Ganesan Athmanathan and Major General Lalit Mohan Tewari, commanded the force in the early 2000s.
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