On Wednesday, September 1, the new mandate of the international force operating in the south ‘UNIFIL’, will start in accordance with Security Council Resolution No. 2591 issued on Monday. UNIFIL’s mandate will last till August 31, 2022, as stipulated in Resolution 1701 and confirmed by subsequent resolutions.
Diplomatic sources revealed to Sawt Beirut International (SBI) that the six-month period for “temporary measures, especially to support the Lebanese Armed Forces with non-lethal materials such as food, fuel and medicine”, was in the main draft of the resolution submitted by France, for a whole year.
However, there were Russian and Chinese pressures which led to reducing the support period to six months. The reason behind Russia’s refusal to support is attributed to the pretext that the support for peacekeeping forces does not constitute a precedent in supporting the national armies in their locations. The other reason is financial, so that the United Nations should not allocate from its budget funds for such support, because it is costly.
China had a supportive position for Russia. This is what led, in negotiating the draft resolution, to an agreement among the member states of the Security Council to reduce the support period to six months.
It is worth noting that the resolution has passed by consensus in the Council and without obstacles, because all the international parties does not want to pressure negatively on the deteriorating political, economic and humanitarian situation in Lebanon. In fact, the international support was complete in terms of maintaining stability in the south, and the role of the international force in that.