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UN extends mission in Lebanon

French UN peacekeepers fire artillery from their tanks during joint maneuvers with the Lebanese army in the coastal town of Naqoura, Lebanon, on Wednesday. The UN Security Council voted on Wednesday to keep peacekeepers in Lebanon for at least another year. PHOTO: AP

The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to keep the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon for another year.

The council also called for stepped-up efforts to achieve a permanent ceasefire and long-term resolution of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.

The 13,300-strong UN force known as UNIFIL was deployed along Lebanon’s border with Israel after the war to help 15,000 Lebanese troops extend their authority into the south for the first time in decades and create a buffer zone free of Hezbollah fighters.

The 34-day war, which killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and 159 people in Israel, was sparked after Hezbollah men attacked an Israeli border patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two more, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.

The remains of Goldwasser and Regev were handed over to Israel last month in a prisoner swap with the militant Lebanese group.

The resolution calls on all parties to respect the cessation of hostilities and the UN-drawn Blue Line boundary between Israel and Lebanon.

After the resolution was adopted, Israeli Deputy Ambassador to the UN Daniel Carmon decried what he called the presence of armed Hezbollah fighters in the south and the continuing transport of weapons from Iran and Syria in violation of Security Council resolutions.

Israel expects UNIFIL to ensure that the area it patrols is not used for hostile activities, he said.

Lebanese envoy Nawaf Salam said Lebanon’s deployment of troops to the south was evidence of its compliance with the resolution that halted the fighting. He accused Israel of violating its terms by refusing to disclose where cluster bombs were used and continuing to carry out overflights of Lebanon.

A team of UN security experts found during a trip to Lebanon last month that the government had not made sufficient progress on a set of recommendations issued by the UN last year to help the country secure its borders against arms smuggling, said a report sent on Monday to the Security Council by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

Ban has alleged that Hezbollah has rearmed with new long-range rockets and missiles since its 2006 war with Israel in violation of a UN arms embargo that bans weapons transfers to the militant Islamic group.

Ban has said that sophisticated weapons from Iran and Syria — both strong backers of Hezbollah — have passed across the Lebanon-Syria border.

The report said that the border security team visited Lebanon’s four operational border crossing points, the Beirut airport, the Beirut and Tripoli seaports and a number of other sections of the Lebanese border.

The team found that Lebanon had not adequately acted on the recommendations of the first Lebanon Independent Border Assessment Team, which visited the country last year and had said the government should, among other measures, increase cooperation among the four agencies responsible for border security, better track air cargo and erect improved fencing and other security equipment infrastructure along the border.

The report described the government’s progress as insufficient.
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