UN Secretary-General Guterres proposes new force to replace Lebanon’s UNIFIL
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has proposed that the UN Security Council establish a new force to replace UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.
According to a letter sent to the Security Council, the force would consist of hundreds or even thousands of troops tasked with maintaining the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel. The proposal appears to offer a way around the Council’s 2025 decision to terminate UNIFIL by creating a new mission under a different framework.
UNIFIL currently deploys about 7,500 peacekeepers from nearly 50 countries along the 120-kilometer Blue Line, the de facto border between Lebanon and Israel, where it has maintained a buffer presence since 1978.
The letter outlines three options. The largest would include about 350 UN military observers, four infantry battalions of 750 troops each, and a 700-soldier reserve force. It would monitor most of the Blue Line (the 120-kilometer de facto border separating Lebanon from Israel), patrol as far north as the Litani River, investigate violations, coordinate with the Lebanese Armed Forces and Israel Defense Forces (IDF), position itself between the sides to help prevent escalation, support ceasefire monitoring, and strengthen Lebanese state authority in the south.
A mid-level option would include 285 observers, two 750-troop battalions, and a 450-soldier reserve force, retaining more limited monitoring, investigative, coordination, and de-escalation capabilities.
The smallest option would consist of 215 unarmed observers, two battalions of 450 troops each, and a 350-member quick reaction force. It would mainly observe, report, investigate some violations, and facilitate communication, with minimal engineering, demining, and enforcement capabilities.
All three options rely on helicopters, engineering and demining units, surveillance systems, drones, radar, and satellite imagery. The UN says continuous monitoring of the entire Blue Line would be impossible without them.
The report does not offer an option to end the UN military presence in southern Lebanon despite the Security Council’s decision to terminate UNIFIL. Instead, it proposes alternatives for maintaining an international force.
For nearly 50 years, UNIFIL was responsible for enforcing the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire and monitoring the ban on Hezbollah’s armed presence south of the Litani River, a mandate critics say was not effectively implemented. During the war, extensive Hezbollah positions, weapons stockpiles, and ammunition depots were found near UN bases.
In 2025, the Security Council unanimously voted to terminate UNIFIL, with the mission set to end in late 2026 and personnel to withdraw during 2027.
