Israel and the United States are pushing for the United Nations to give its peacekeepers in Lebanon more authority so that they can better counter Hezbollah.
Established in 1978 to man a buffer zone between Israel and Lebanon, the operational mandate afforded to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon is renewed by the Security Council annually. The council – the UN's most powerful body – is set to vote on the issue next Thursday.
UNIFIL is currently 10,500-soldiers strong and has an annual budget of $490 million.
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Jerusalem and Washington would like to see the UN give UNIFIL greater power, as its authority has been eroded to the point of near-irrelevance by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, which dominates southern Lebanon – the area bordering Israel.
The Shiite organization has been designated as a terrorist group by several Western countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, Argentina, Paraguay, and Israel, as well as Arab League member Bahrain. Some countries, such as Australia, France, and Germany, only classify Hezbollah's military wing as a terrorist organization.
Hezbollah has clashed with UNIFIL troops several times over the years and has restricted their movements across southern Lebanon, a move which grossly undermines its mandate.
Elad Strohmayer, the spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, recently argued that "Hezbollah restricts UNIFIL from carrying out its role as a UN peacekeeping force. … With this upcoming vote at the UN Security Council we have the opportunity to actually give UNIFIL the ability to do what it is supposed to rather than, yet again, automatically renewing its mandate."
Ahead of the vote, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said that "while the Israeli interest is largely served [by the peacekeeping force], UNIFIL must still be able to exercise its mandate freely and without restriction."
Israel, Danon added, "holds the Lebanese government exclusively responsible for Hezbollah's terrorist activity on its soil."
Hezbollah wields considerable power in Lebanon and dominates its parliament, where it holds 70 of 128 seats. It also counts Lebanese President Michel Aoun among its staunch supporters.
