Hezbollah wants to restrict UNIFIL’s activities in Lebanon

Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, delivered a speech in which he criticized UNIFIL’s activities across the Lebanese territories.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon’s mandate, which expires Thursday, was extended last year with a minor change that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah denounced at the time as a “violation of Lebanese sovereignty,” according to Arab News.

“A foreign armed force that moves on Lebanese territory without authorization of the government and Lebanese army, without coordination with the Lebanese army, where is the sovereignty in all that?” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
The UNIFIL’s latest modified mandate allows the UN peacekeeping force to” conduct its operations independently,” across Lebanon. The Security Council on Wednesday is to meet on extending UNIFIL’s mandate.
UNIFIL’s beginnings in Lebanon

UNIFIL was established over four decades ago. It has routinely coordinated patrols and movements with the Lebanese army in its southern area of operations.
However, Lebanon’s government has also protested to the absence of a requirement for such coordination in the UN resolution.

Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on Monday to convey Lebanon’s position, according to the country’s official ANI news service.

UNIFIL was established in 1978 to supervise the withdrawal of Israeli forces following their invasion of Lebanon in retaliation for a Palestinian attack.

In December, an Irish soldier with UNIFIL was killed and three comrades were injured as their convoy came under fire near the Israeli border in south Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Source » albawaba.com