The UN Security Council's decision to extend the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was welcomed Friday by senior Lebanese politicians. Minister of State Nassib Lahoud called the decision "a continuation of international support in Lebanon." The Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to extend UNIFIL's mandate - stipulated under Resolution 1701 which brought to a close Israel war on Lebanon in 2006 - without amendment following recommendations by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, The Daily Star reported.
The peacekeeping force will now continue to patrol the area stretching south of the Litani River to the Blue Line - the boundary of Israeli military withdrawal from Lebanon - until August 31, 2010.
In a statement issued following his meeting with Italian Ambassador Gabrielle Checchia, Lahoud said the decision represented "the importance of Lebanon's position at the final session of the Security Council."
He mentioned the Security Council address of Nawaf Salam, Lebanon's ambassador to the UN, in which Salam spoke of "the continuing Israeli violations in the village of Ghajar and elsewhere."
For his part, Nabatieh MP Yassin Jaber, a member of Speaker Nabih Berri's parliamentary bloc, issued a statement "congratulating" Lebanese diplomacy on the renewal, without amendments. Jaber said the extension was "a victory for Lebanon and a defeat for Israel."
While the renewed resolution text expressed "deep concern" at "serious violations," it stopped short of explicitly citing the July blast at a suspected-Hizbullah arms cache in Khirbet Silim or the frequently alleged incidents of Israeli warplanes violating Lebanese airspace.
Speaking to Sharq Radio, UNIFIL spokesman Milos Strugar said that such violations were unavoidable. "We cannot avoid incidents or violations. However, if we take the necessary steps and have the necessary relations then we can contain or prevent any deterioration in the situation," he said.
The resolution stated that primary responsibility in stemming the flow of "unauthorized personnel, assets or weapons" in UNIFIL's area of operations lay with the peacekeeping force and reiterated the need for it to cooperate better with the Lebanese Army.
Strugar said good progress had been made since UNIFIL's numbers were boosted in 2006.
"Many things have been accomplished in the last few years. [There have been] no hostile acts between the sides, even though some scattered incidents and violations have been recorded," he said.
Resolution 1701 "is relatively complex, there are many provisions," he said. "Despite this we have registered many positive accomplishments such as the deployment of the LAF (Lebanese Army) and the absence of civilian casualties whether on the Lebanese or Israeli side. This is something that is unprecedented since the beginning of the conflict."
He stressed the importance of strengthening the relationship between UNIFIL and LAF forces in the coming year.
"The cooperation between UNIFIL and LAF is the cornerstone of [Resolution] 1701. The decision that was raised by the Security Council praised the deployment of the LAF and the cooperation under way with UNIFIL which has helped produced a strategic change in the situation on the ground."
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