US-Funded Lebanese Military Is Preventing US-Funded UN Peacekeepers From Doing Their Job – By Patrick Goodenough (CNS News) / Aug 30 2019
(CNSNews.com) – The U.N. Security Council on Thursday extended the mandate of a peacekeeping force in Lebanon, amid concerns that Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists and an uncooperative Lebanese military are preventing the blue helmets from doing their job.
U.S. Ambassador Jonathan Cohen told the council it was time to examine the troop strength of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), in light of its inability to get access to “areas of concern,” including tunnels allegedly dug by Hezbollah under the Lebanon-Israel border.
“We have a common interest in seeing UNIFIL succeed, but it continues to be prevented from fully implementing its mandate; and we cannot continue to accept the status quo,” he said.
Cohen said the peacekeepers have been unable to get access to the tunnels “because Lebanese leaders have not directed their armed forces to investigate suspected sites with UNIFIL.”
The first of several tunnels was discovered last December by Israel, which accused Hezbollah of having constructed them to carry out attacks on Israeli soil.
Israel worries the tunnels could facilitate cross-border raids like one in 2006, when Hezbollah terrorists abducted – and later killed – two Israeli soldiers, sparking a bloody month-long war.
In a report to the Security Council last month, U.N. secretary-general Antonio Guterres said UNIFIL had verified the existence of five tunnels, three crossing the border, and had given their coordinates to the Lebanese government. He said the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) had given assurances last May the LAF were “taking action to gain access to the sites.”
But, Guterres’ report noted, “UNIFIL still has not been able to gain access to all relevant locations.”
U.S. taxpayers account for millions of dollars in funding each year for UNIFIL, and for the LAF.
In fiscal year 2018, the U.S. provided $146.1 million for UNIFIL – 30.2 percent of the mission’s total operating budget of $483 million for the period July 2017-June 2018. For FY 2020, the administration has requested $83.4 million for UNIFIL.
The U.S. is also a major contributor to the LAF, which it regards as an important counterweight to Hezbollah – despite the LAF’s dismal record in that regard. The U.S. has provided nearly $1.7 billion in military assistance to the LAF since 2006. The administration’s FY 2020 request includes $50 million in foreign military finance and $3 million for International Military Education and Training.
“The fact that UNIFIL cannot access all of the areas within its area of operations leads us to believe that it is time to re-examine troop strength and begin the process of putting the mission on a trajectory toward right-sizing,” Cohen told the council.
Cohen concluded by warning that UNIFIL’s mandate will need to be adjusted if it continues to be prevented from implementing its mission under the existing one.
“We need to see serious progress and cannot, and will not, accept the status quo moving forward.”
Israel warns Iran, Hezbollah, Lebanon over missiles
UNIFIL’s mandate includes ensuring that southern Lebanon is not used for hostile activities by non-state actors. Hezbollah’s very existence as an armed militia violates two U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Early this week Hezbollah threatened to retaliate after what it called an Israeli drone attack over its stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs. A drone fell to earth and another exploded in midair, causing damage to Hezbollah’s media offices, according to the terrorist group.
UNIFIL peacekeepers in southern Lebanon. (Photo: UNIFIL)
At the Security Council meeting Kuwaiti Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi, representing the Arab states on the council, used his statement to condemn Israel’s “violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty” and “airspace violations”
He said the Security Council “should send a strict message to compel Israel to stop such violations.”
Al-Otaibi made no mention in his remarks of Hezbollah or its actions, including actions to block access to UNIFIL.
The Israeli Defense Forces said on Thursday that Iran has in recent months stepped up its assistance to Hezbollah in manufacturing precision missiles “in the heart of Beirut” to use against Israel.
In a television interview spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus warned that the IDF holds the Lebanese government “responsible for everything that happens in Lebanon,” but declined to comment when asked if that meant Israel was ready to strike inside Lebanon.
UN still awaiting action on attack on peacekeepers
Earlier this week, Fox News published a video clip, provided by an “intelligence source,” showing a group of men forcing two UNIFIL patrol vehicles off the road and then attacking them.
The men used rocks and hammers to break the vehicles’ windows, before setting one alight. When armed peacekeepers emerge they were confronted, put up little resistance and retreated, and at least one blue helmet could be seen surrendering his weapon to armed men.
Although the footage has just emerged, the incident took place a year ago, in Majdal Zun, a Lebanese village just five miles from the border with Israel. It prompted the Security Council to demand in a Aug. 9. 2018 statement that a credible investigation be held.
In a report to the Security Council last November, Guterres called it “[o]ne of the most serious incidents involving UNIFIL personnel in recent years.”
He said peacekeepers had weapons pointed at them, were punched and beaten, one was kicked while on the ground, and one suffered “minor burns” when his vehicle was set alight.
Guterres noted that “UNIFIL has urged the Lebanese Armed Forces to complete their investigation” into the incident.
But in his July 2019 report to the Security Council, Guterres said – 11 months after the attack in Majdal Zun – that the U.N. has still not been informed of any “criminal proceedings to date to bring the perpetrators to justice,,” even though “UNIFIL has provided the Lebanese authorities with information to assist in the identification of the perpetrators.”
UNIFIL, which today comprises around 10,300 troops from 43 countries, was established as an “interim” mission 41 years ago to help the Lebanese government to restore its effective authority in southern Lebanon, and confirm the Israeli military’s withdrawal from the area.
The IDF had invaded the southern Lebanon area, after PLO terrorists infiltrated Israel by boat from Lebanon and then carried out a bus hijacking which killed of 38 Israelis, 13 of them children
A screengrab from footage aired by Iran’s Fars news agency shows Hezbollah terrorists fighting Sunni jihadists near the Lebanon-Syria border. (Screengrab: Fars)
