Lebanese President Joseph Aoun welcomed on Friday France and Italy’s efforts to set up a multinational coalition to succeed the UN peacekeeping force in his country, whose mandate expires at the end of the year.
The peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL, is made up of roughly 7,500 personnel from nearly 50 countries, and has been in place since 1978, although its presence has not prevented repeated outbreaks of conflict.
Last August, the UN Security Council, under US pressure, decided to end UNIFIL’s mandate on 31 December 2026.
In a statement, Aoun called the initiative “a sincere expression of the international commitment to supporting Lebanon’s sovereignty and stability”.
On Thursday, after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, French President Emmanual Macron said that France and Italy “want to launch a coalition for the post-UNIFIL arrangement, obviously in coordination with the European Union and the United Nations, to strengthen Lebanon’s sovereignty and that of its armed forces” and prevent its territory from being “a foothold for regional escalation”.
France is one of UNIFIL’s largest contributing countries.
