The role of UNIFIL seems to be misunderstood by many and so

[moniss]

I would refer people to the various UNIFIL documents going back several years now. Some people seem to think the role of UNIFIL is to go into pitched battle with Hezbollah or any number of other groups and seize weapons. That is not the case. The role for UNIFIL has been to provide a "buffer and monitoring" presence along the Blue Line and in other areas of Lebanon while trying to facilitate the Lebanese Government to stabilize and the Lebanese State Military Forces to try to gain strength and provide stability and security in the country. It must be remembered that this country was decimated over a period of many years by internal conflict and foreign military actions.

UNIFIL does a great deal of work in Lebanon in several areas such as assisting the Lebanese in setting up civilian infrastructure, providing training for land mine removal, establishing and supporting the land mine removal forces, assisting the Lebanese State Military in establishing maritime boundaries and training them in conducting interdiction activities on vessels, tracking reported Blue Line violations and investigating, tracking and investigating reports of attacks and the list goes on and on. UNIFIL over the years has conducted regular efforts to get both Israel and Lebanon to complete implementation of Resolution 1701 and subsequent relevant Resolutions.

They report regularly to the Secretary General and he issues reports every few months. I have included a link so that anybody who wishes can read and research at length. It should be noted that the reports typically describe hundreds of violations of Resolution 1701 by both Israel and Lebanon and by the non-State groups such as Hezbollah while the groups like Fatah and PFLP seem to mostly fight among themselves within Lebanon but do occasionally commit acts against UNIFIL and otherwise violate Resolution 1701.

Of particular note is the reference in reports to the IDF constantly violating the airspace of Lebanon in violation of Resolution 1701 and most of this appears to be surveillance/intelligence related using drones. Until recently of course. The other item of particular note in these reports is the constant reference to observed incidents of prohibited weapons being observed at firing ranges. Again the UNIFIL mandate is not about having them get into armed attacks to take weapons but rather for UNIFIL to report to and assist the Lebanese State Military in any such confiscations. Their rules of engagement are for limited use of force for self defense purposes regarding their ability to continue their operations in their limited overall role as mainly observation and buffer.

Israel and the IDF criticize UNIFIL for example about "not doing anything" about tunnels or Hezbollah weapons but at the same time they receive criticism from Lebanon about "not doing anything" about Israeli construction and occupation of areas north of the Blue Line near Ghajar by the Golan Heights area or airspace violations for example. But UNIFIL is unfairly blamed by both because UNIFIL does report these items to each side for correction as required and to the UN General Secretary. UNIFIL can only do what they are authorized to do and if the parties do not correct their violations of Resolution 1701 when they aare confronted with them then a mirror will show them the responsible party for correcting matters. UNIFIL unfortunately finds itself in a situation similar to when police try to intervene in a domestic violence incident between partners only to find that both partners turn on the police and begin to attack them. So here is the link to the UNIFIL reports where you can read about all of the horrible behavior by everybody involved and also a link to a brief article from DW (Deutsche Welle) News about the basics of UNIFIL.

https://unifil.unmissions.org/unifil-documents

https://www.dw.com/en/unifil-why-are-un-peacekeepers-in-lebanon/a-70471965

[Eko]

1. Thanks for posting this.

Kick and rec.

[Mosby]

2. UNIFIL is tasked with, per the actual resolutions

Last edited Tue Oct 15, 2024, 12:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Restoring international peace and security in Lebanon.

That's an exact quote from the preceding resolution 425

No where in 1701 or any where else does it say "buffer and monitoring". That's you editorializing, it's not in the text of 1701.

You should do a better job making clear what's your opinion and what's in the actual text.

Thanks.

FYI here are all the relevant resolutions about Lebanon attacking Israel.

Recalling all its previous resolutions on Lebanon, in particular resolutions 425 (1978), 426 (1978), 520 (1982), 1559 (2004), 1655 (2006) 1680 (2006) and 1697 (2006), as well as the statements of its President on the situation in Lebanon, in particular the statements of 18 June 2000 (S/PRST/2000/21), of 19 October 2004 (S/PRST/2004/36), of 4 May 2005 (S/PRST/2005/17), of 23 January 2006 (S/PRST/2006/3) and of 30 July 2006

AND 1701.

[moniss]

3. That is a general statement rather than

a specific list of authorized actions to achieve it. But let's for the sake of argument grant you what you seem to wish for which is an all powerful UNIFIL to take terminal military actions against violations of 1701. Fine. How many Israeli deaths, downed jets and drones etc. are you OK with? When the IDF knowingly and purposely blocked a patrol road of UNIFIL then how many UNIFIL bombs would have been acceptable on the IDF personnel who did this and their command?

What you propose is unlimited action against one party in a conflict with no limits on the action of another party. As I have stated many times there is not an agreement in this region that I can recall where the parties have been honest rather than deceitful and always with a shadow agenda of going at each other.

Let's take it a step further and give the critics of UNIFIL and UNRWA in the Israeli government what they want and completely eliminate them. Is the Israeli government going to step up and provide all the dollars and programs and administer what UNRWA does? Hardly. Does the Israeli government think that other countries that have economic headwinds of their own should somehow now solely provide all of that? Is the Israeli government so ignorant that it thinks that somehow not providing those things is going to result in a more secure situation?

No indeed because the Israeli government position is that if you starve people enough, brutalize them enough militarily and destroy enough of what little they have around them that as the remaining population deals with their amputations, brain injuries, severely burned bodies, blindness, psychological trauma, starvation and all the rest that somehow they will come to think of you as "peaceful neighbors" rather than the government who has brutalized them for 75+ years. It is insane to think what has been done will bring anything but an increasing level of hate and response. But the saying is the insane never realize that they are and they think of themselves as perfectly normal. Sanity on the part of the radical right and the Israeli government has always been as scarce a commodity as mirrors.

[Beastly Boy]

4. I have a bad habit of checking the sources to verify information, and it appears that Resolution 1701 expected UNIFIL

to do quite a bit more than you do.

Thus, after
- "Expressing its utmost concern at the continuing escalation of hostilities in Lebanon and in Israel since Hizbollah’s attack on Israel on 12 July 2006" and
- "emphasizing the need to address urgently the causes that have given rise to the current crisis, including by the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers, and
- welcoming Lebanon's effort "to extend its authority over its territory, through its own legitimate armed forces, such that there will be no weapons without the consent of the Government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the Government of Lebanon", and
- noting "a United Nations force that is supplemented and enhanced in numbers, equipment,mandate and scope of operation, and
- being aware of Lebanon's " request the assistance of additional forces from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) as
needed, to facilitate the entry of the Lebanese armed forces into the region", among other things,

the UN resolved to
- call "upon the Government of Lebanon and UNIFIL as authorized by paragraph 11 to deploy their forces together throughout the South and calls upon the Government of Israel, as that deploymentbegins, to withdraw all of its forces from southern Lebanon in parallel", and
- insure that there "will be no weapons without the consent of the Government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the Government of Lebanon", and
- affirm "that all parties [including UNIFIL] are responsible for ensuring that no action is taken contrary to paragraph 1 that might adversely affect the search for a long-term solution, and affirm the principles that include "the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL", and "disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of 27 July 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than thatof the Lebanese State" and that :no sales or supply of arms and related materiel to Lebanon except as
authorized by its Government", and
- decide to "authorize an increase in the force strength of UNIFIL to a maximum of 15,000 troops, so they may "monitor the cessation of hostilities"; accompany and support the Lebanese armed forces as they deploy throughout the South, including along the Blue Line", "coordinate its activities related to paragraph 11 (b) with the Government of Lebanon and the Government of Israel" and "assist the Lebanese armed forces", among other things.
- authorize "UNIFIL to take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind", and
- request "the Secretary-General urgently to put in place measures to ensure UNIFIL is able to carry out the functions envisaged in this resolution", among other things.
http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/doc/1701

Now you tell me, how many missions did UNIFIL fail to accomplish, as per Resolution 1701?

[moniss]

5. Once again there is no authorization for UNIFIL to

go around bombing and shooting up the place. Anybody who wants to extrapolate phrases like peace and security to mean balls to the wall military action is deluding themselves. As I stated UNIFIL does lots of things. As I have also stated UNIFIL in their reports to the Secretary General, and he makes public, openly state things they are working on where they have not achieved the goals. Also as I have said you won't find such admissions from Israel about their violations of 1701 month after month, year after year. In that respect there is no difference between Hezbollah and Israel. But in the end as I also said if you want a UNIFIL that carries out termination actions militarily for 1701 violations then tell me how many Israeli deaths, downed jets and drones etc. are acceptable to you since these violations and others by Israel have gone on for years. Or is it supposed to be one party to a conflict is to be attacked for violations while the other party is immune?

[Beastly Boy]

6. If this is the only defense you can offer UNIFIL on the basis of Resolution 1701, you get a prize!

This is absolutely true, there is nothing in the resolution that authorizes UNIFIL to go bombing and shooting up the place.

But failing at their numerous missions that ARE included in the Resolution? No comment, right?

Sure UNIFIL does lots of things. It also doesn't do lots of things. Stating failures doesn't detract from failures, especially when contrasted with abject absence of successes not nearly as monumental as their failures. And this contrast is not at all mitigated by what Israel does or doesn't do. Hezbollah, and not the Lebanese army, is in control of the South of Lebanon.

Exactly the opposite of what Resolution 1701 called for. And that is sure as hell not Israel's fault, no matter how you spin it.

[moniss]

7. Their reports

state the reasons why things are or aren't happening and what the game plan is going forward to try and make progress. It should be noted for the record that the violations of 1701 are reported to the violators for them to correct as was the demand of all parties when the negotiations happened. Lack of progress on items usually means that the parties to the agreement have obstructed UNIFIL or failed to correct their violations as they gave their word they would. But as usual the word of these parties is unreliable to say the least. For your information UNIFIL does make progress on items that concern the Lebanese government, civil society infrastructure programs, the Lebanese State Military improvements, training and standing up a quality force to remove landmines, helping Lebanon establish it's maritime boundary/patrol/interdiction of vessels and much more. The importance of the maritime boundary and security improvements have lead to international companies feeling secure enough to engage in negotiations with the Lebanese government for offshore exploration. Your attempt to portray UNIFIL as a do nothing organization is false as given by the information in the periodic reports.