Top European, Arab officials set to mull options for post-UNIFIL mission on Israel-Lebanon border

European and Arab political and military chiefs will meet in Paris today to assess the Lebanese Armed Forces’ needs and discuss the looming end of the United Nations peacekeeping mission UNIFIL.

Israel and Lebanon have held several rounds of US-brokered talks aimed at easing tensions along the border. But with elections in Israel and the United States approaching in the coming weeks, diplomats say a breakthrough is unlikely.

Today’s talks, which will initially be chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron alongside Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Jordan’s King Abdullah, are not formally part of Washington’s efforts.

The US will be represented by a senior military official involved in Middle East security issues.

As part of the US-brokered talks, Israel and Lebanon agreed to a framework deal that envisions Israeli troops gradually withdrawing as Lebanese authorities disarm Hezbollah and deploy across the country’s south.

Officials in Paris will seek to assess the precise military and financial requirements ahead of a donor conference likely to be held in late 2026 or early 2027, diplomats say.

The most immediate concern is how to fill the security vacuum that could be left when UNIFIL, which has about 7,500 personnel, begins drawing down from January.

Despite Lebanon and France both favoring an extension of the UN mandate, neither the United States nor Israel has signaled support for prolonging the mission, which they view as having failed in its mandate, which included implementing a 2006 UN Security Council resolution that said Hezbollah must be disarmed and its presence in southern Lebanon ended altogether.

The officials in Paris will discuss options for a new international mission, backed by France and Italy, operating outside a UN mandate, as well as a possible European Union-led mission.

Both concepts would focus on training, equipment, intelligence sharing and mentoring support for the Lebanese Armed Forces.

“The modalities of this international or multinational action remain to be defined — if only because the Lebanese have not voiced requests that align with, in particular, US demands at the Security Council, and because we still need to calibrate the terms of this presence and be absolutely clear about the mandate,” a French presidency official tells reporters ahead of the meeting.