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UN renews mandate of peacekeeping force in Lebanon, hours before expiration
A UNIFIL patrol drives past a billboard showing the faces of slain Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh, in the southern Lebanese village of Adaisseh on the border with Israel, August 26, 2020. (Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
The United Nations Security Council votes to extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, hours before it was due to expire.
The vote is 13-0, with permanent members China and Russia both abstaining.
It was not immediately clear if the terms of the mandate had changed and Israeli officials did not initially respond as they reviewed the mandate.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, has attempted to maintain calm in southern Lebanon since its creation in 1978, and is currently tasked with enforcing a UN resolution barring armed operations by Lebanese terror group Hezbollah near the ceasefire line that forms the de facto border.
