Questions on UNIFIL’s future amid the Gaza war and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon

The troops contributing countries can make UNIFIL effective if they continue to stand by their peacekeepers and follow through on warnings to Israel with action if their peacekeepers are harmed.

- MAJ GEN A.K. BARDALAI

UNIFIL AND THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE

The history of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon is rooted in the Palestinian cause. In the early 1970s, after the Palestinian armed elements were forced out of Jordan and relocated to Lebanon and Palestinian commandos raided Israel on 11 March 1978, Israel invaded Lebanon on the night of 14 March. Five days later, the UN Security Council authorised two resolutions 425 and SCR 426, and UNIFIL, as it's known, was established to confirm the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces or IDF.

It was a relatively medium-sized mission. The current one, however, was born after the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon, through Security Council Resolution 1701.

UNIFIL is one of the oldest traditional peacekeeping missions, and its mandate and structure set it apart from similar missions. It is a Chapter VI mission with Chapter VII tasks built into the mandate. Paragraph 11 of the SCR 1701 tasks UNIFIL only for supervising, monitoring and assistance roles.

At the same time, vide paragraph 12 of the resolution, the Security Council has authorised "UNIFIL to take all necessary actions in the areas of deployment-", which is generally associated with using force under the Chapter VII mandate.

Additionally, it is the only peacekeeping mission with armed contingents from a few capable nations from the West, such as France, Italy and Spain. Its current weapons profile is unheard of in traditional missions. For example, besides Armoured Personal Carriers, which are the standard equipment of armed peacekeeping contingents, in UNIFIL, the French contingent is equipped with Leclerc the main battle tank (MBT) of France, self-propelled artillery guns, and gun-locating radars. Besides, UNIFIL is the only mission to have a maritime task force comprising a few battleships.