Germany renews push for EU force to replace UNIFIL in Lebanon

Germany has renewed its call for the European Union to deploy a force in southern Lebanon before the United Nations peacekeeping mission there ends at the close of the year. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Berlin wants to avoid a security vacuum once UNIFIL withdraws, and argued that any new arrangement should help create conditions for an Israeli withdrawal from the area. He also said such a force would need to stop Hezbollah from returning to the south.

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Wadephul made the comments in an interview with a German broadcaster on Friday, according to the supplied report. He said Germany has proposed that the EU examine whether it can ensure there is no security vacuum after UNIFIL's mandate expires. The current mission is due to end after 48 years, following a decision by the UN Security Council last year under pressure from the United States.

The report says the proposal is not new and has been under discussion within the EU for some time. UNIFIL was first deployed in 1978 after Israel's initial invasion of Lebanon, and its role has long been contested. The supplied report says the mission has faced criticism from multiple sides, including over its inability to prevent Israel's deeper advance into Lebanese territory during the war with Hezbollah.

It also says Israel advanced further into Lebanese territory in May than at any point since ending a nearly two-decade occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000. Hezbollah has continued cross-border attacks into northern Israel, while Israeli forces have carried out strikes and operations in southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire. The proposal matters because the end of UNIFIL could leave a gap in a region where military pressure, border attacks and competing claims over control remain unresolved.

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Germany's position suggests concern in Europe that the end of the UN mission could complicate efforts to stabilise the south and support any Israeli pullback. The report says Lebanon has expressed support for a possible EU-led mission, although officials in Brussels and military sources have indicated that any such deployment would likely look different from UNIFIL's traditional peacekeeping model. According to the report, a possible EU role would probably focus more on support and training for Lebanon's armed forces than on a large peacekeeping presence on the ground.

That would mark a significant shift from UNIFIL's current mandate and from the way the area has been monitored for decades. The discussion also comes as Lebanon and Israel pursue a US-brokered process aimed at ending the war, with the two sides having completed a sixth round of talks in Rome, according to the supplied material. What remains unclear is whether EU member states would agree on a mandate, what powers such a force would have, and how it would operate alongside Lebanese and Israeli forces.

It is also not clear whether the proposal can gain enough political and military backing before UNIFIL's mandate ends. For now, the debate centres on how to prevent a security gap in southern Lebanon and what mechanism, if any, could replace the long-running UN mission.

#Lebanon #UNIFIL #EuropeanUnion #Germany #Hezbollah

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