The United Nations refused a request from Israel to move some its peacekeepers near the Lebanese border just days before Israel began its ground operation earlier this week.
United Nations Interim Force In Lebanonn (UNIFIL), the UN’s peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, received a request from the Israeli military to “vacate” several positions near the Blue Line — the demarcation zone between Israel and Lebanon which has been the center of intense fighting in recent months, according to Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations.
The UN already anticipated the prospect of Israel carrying out “targeted ground operations” in Lebanon and decided to stay put in such an instance, Lacroix told a briefing Thursday.
“We had made a very considerate, thorough and sorely discussed decision that it would be better for UNIFIL, for peacekeepers, and in terms of our responsibility to the mandate to stay in those positions,” the chief added.
Some context: UN peacekeepers have been stationed along the roughly 120 kilometer Blue Line since it was drawn up by the UN in 2000 to ensure Israel’s complete withdrawal from Lebanon. UN peacekeepers were drawn from armies of several nations to monitor the situation along the Blue Line which separates the two states.
