From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Head of UN peacekeeping efforts in Lebanon as UNIFIL mandate winds down, will visit forces in Syria, Israel
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleLazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the United Nations official responsible for UN peace operations, meets in Beirut with Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun to discuss UNIFIL, the peacekeeping force that has been monitoring hostilities in southern Lebanon for nearly 50 years.
UNIFIL’s mandate ends on December 31.
According to the Lebanese readout, Lacroix says that the UN Security Council will begin discussing the future of the UN presence in Lebanon, and that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “has presented the Security Council with a number of options regarding the possibility of continuing the United Nations presence after the end of the mandate.”
The European Union has said it is in favor of extending the mandate.
Lacroix will also meet with members of the UN Disengagement Force on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, which maintains the ceasefire between Israel and Syria.
He will then travel to Jerusalem to meet the UN Truce Supervision Organization, which contributes to peacekeeping efforts across the Middle East.
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