The European union is considering deploying its own mission to southern Lebanon after the United Nations peacekeeping operation concludes, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Friday.
“We know that the UNIFIL mission is ending, and it’s clear that the Lebanese armed forces need more help to disarm Hezbollah and have control over the country. We have been discussing with foreign ministers, as well as defense ministers, whether we are able to put together our own mission once UNIFIL ends, but not with the same mandate, to really address the needs that they have,” Kallas said ahead of the second day of an informal EU summit in Cyprus.
This comes after a fragile truce in Lebanon has been extended by three weeks after Israeli and Lebanese representatives met at the White House. The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is among the key sticking points in US-Iran peace efforts.
The escalation of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon began on March 2, following US and Israeli strikes on Iran. The Lebanese group Hezbollah sided with Tehran amid rising regional tensions.
On March 16, Israel launched a ground operation in southern Lebanon and carried out strikes on Lebanese cities, including the capital.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump’s involvement in Israel-Lebanon mediation “made it possible” for the ceasefire to be extended and expressed optimism about the prospects for peace.
“The president wanted to be personally involved and glad he was, because it made it possible to get this extension, and it gives everybody time to continue to work on what’s going to be permanent peace between two countries that want to be in peace,” Rubio said.
On the contrary, Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter countered US hopes, saying peace between Israel and Lebanon is not a “pipe dream,” during diplomatic talks at the White House.
Leiter noted that the focus should be less on the Israeli troop presence in southern Lebanon and more on dismantling Hezbollah, a task, he added, the Lebanese government had fallen short on.
Later Thursday, after news of the ceasefire extension, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, expressed mistrust. The extension is “not 100 per cent,” Danon told CNN, noting the Lebanese government lacks control over Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah is sending rockets, trying to sabotage the ceasefire. And Israel, we have to retaliate,” he added.
Hezbollah and Israel have both conducted military strikes during the truce, including an Israeli strike on southern Lebanon on Wednesday that killed one journalist and seriously injured another.
