The UN says working to maintain a presence in Lebanon after the departure of UNIFIL in 2027

The UN is “working” to maintain a presence in Lebanon after the departure of the Finul, whose mandate ends at the end of the year, the United Nations deputy secretary-general in charge of peacekeeping operations announced on Thursday, April 23. The Security Council requested “options for a possible post-Finul UN presence,” and “we are working on it,” said Jean-Pierre Lacroix during a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland. He did not detail the different options but stated that a presence “will likely be more limited than that of the Finul.”

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Finul), which has lost five soldiers – two French and three Indonesians – in recent days, has been serving as a peacekeeping force between Israel and Lebanon since 1978 but is caught in the crossfire between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.

This force, consisting of over 8,200 soldiers from 47 countries, is caught between Israel and the pro-Iranian faction, which dragged Lebanon into the war between Israel and the United States on one side and Iran on the other through an attack on March 2nd. Since then, the Finul has come under fire several times.

Its mandate, renewed annually by the UN Security Council, will expire on December 31, 2026: at the end of August, under pressure from the United States and Israel, the Security Council decided to schedule its withdrawal for 2027, which some consider premature.