Lebanese PM tells UN team his country will need back-up force once UNIFIL’s term ends

Peacekeepers’ term ends next year after decades; with Israel saying it failed in its mission to monitor border area to prevent Hezbollah build-up

By AP and ToI Staff 5 December 2025, 10:01 pm

Edit

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam arrives to attend a cabinet session to discuss an army plan to disarm Hezbollah, at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, on September 5, 2025. (ANWAR AMRO / AFP)

BEIRUT — The Lebanese prime minister on Friday told a visiting UN delegation that his country will need a follow-up force in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel to fill the vacuum once the UN peacekeepers’ term expires by the end of next year.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously in August to terminate the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, at the end of 2026 — nearly five decades after the force was deployed.

The multinational force has played a role in monitoring the security situation in the region, including during the Israel-Hezbollah war last year.

Israel had long argued that the force had failed in its mission, doing little to block Hezbollah from building up its forces near the Israeli border over decades.

And it drew criticism from officials in President Donald Trump’s administration, which has moved to slash US funding for the operation as Trump remakes America’s approach to foreign policy.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam held talks with the team representing the 15 members of the UN Security Council, saying he believes another follow-up force would help Lebanese troops along the border, where they have intensified efforts in the volatile area that witnessed the 14-month war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Salam proposed that a small follow-up force could work much like the UN observer force that has been deployed along Syria’s border with Israel since 1974.

French UN peacekeepers patrol the Lebanese-Israeli border in the village of Houla, southern Lebanon, August 20, 2025. (AP/Hussein Malla)

There was no immediate response from the UN delegation, which arrived in Lebanon after a visit to Syria. Earlier Friday, the delegation also met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who said Lebanon would welcome any country’s decision to keep its forces in southern Lebanon after UNIFIL’s term expires.

Aoun also touted Lebanon’s appointment of former ambassador to Washington, Simon Karam, to head the Lebanese delegation to a previously military-only committee that monitors the US-brokered ceasefire that halted the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.

The appointment has angered Hezbollah, whose leader Naim Qassem said in a televised speech later Friday that the appointment of the ex-ambassador was allegedly a “concession” to Israel.

Qassem said it would not change “the enemy’s stance and its aggression,” referring to Israel’s almost daily airstrikes on what it says are Hezbollah targets in violation of the truce.

Israel’s air force carried out a series of airstrikes on Thursday in southern Lebanon, saying it struck Hezbollah’s infrastructure. Warnings were issued in advance to evacuate the area.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, with Hezbollah firing rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas. Israel’s response operation, which included bombardment and a ground operation last year, has severely weakened Hezbollah.