The UN on Friday renewed for one year its peace mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), reducing its authorized personnel and demanding in Beirut access to the tunnels under the Blue Line separating this country from Israel. A resolution to this effect, drafted by France, was adopted by the Security Council unanimously by its 15 members, according to diplomats. "Recognizing that UNIFIL has successfully applied its mandate since 2006, allowing peace and security to be maintained since then", the Council "decides to reduce the staffing ceiling from 15,000 soldiers to 13,000", indicates the resolution.
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In fact, this decision does not change much because the current strength of UNIFIL is around 10,500 peacekeepers, a diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity. In addition, the text "calls on the government of Lebanon to facilitate rapid and full access by UNIFIL to the sites the force wants to investigate, including all places north of the Blue Line linked to the discovery of tunnels" in 2019. allowing armed incursions into Israel. Supporting Israel which accused UNIFIL of "partiality" and "ineffectiveness", the United States had been campaigning since the beginning of the summer in favor of a reduction in the strength of UNIFIL and access to the tunnels whose construction is attributed to the pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hezbollah, very influential in the south of Lebanon.
The resolution calls on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "to develop a detailed plan, with specific deadlines and modalities , " in coordination with Lebanon and the troop-contributing countries, to implement its recommendations. June aimed at improving the performance of UNIFIL. In a report, he then advocated a "more agile and more mobile" force. The Security Council asks Antonio Guterres to present the first elements of his plan to it within 60 days. Present in Lebanon since 1978, UNIFIL, made up largely of European contingents, has been monitoring the Lebanese-Israeli border since the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, making sure to prevent a new conflict between these two parties.