{"id":1008370,"date":"2026-06-06T03:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T03:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1008370\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T03:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T03:28:16","slug":"france-weighs-post-unifil-security-force-for-southern-lebanon-envoy-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1008370\/","title":{"rendered":"France weighs post-Unifil security force for southern Lebanon, envoy says"},"content":{"rendered":"

France is weighing alternatives to the peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, including a security mechanism that may not be deployed under a UN mandate, special envoy to Lebanon<\/a> Jean-Yves Le Drian revealed.<\/p>\n

In an interview in Beirut, Mr Le Drian, said France \u201cis ready\u201d to help Lebanon maintain security in the south after the planned withdrawal of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) at the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrance is available for an ad hoc international mission or a mission within the United Nations framework to fill the security vacuum<\/a> expected at the end of the year,\u201d he told The National, adding that the UN Secretary-General had already put forward proposals.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll our partners are worried about the security vacuum. [..] But today I repeat very clearly: France is ready,\u201d he affirmed. <\/p>\n

He said other European partners, including Italy and Spain, could take part, adding that the mechanism’s final structure would depend on Lebanon’s needs.<\/p>\n

Mr Le Drian’s visit to Beirut comes two days after the announcement of a fourth ceasefire<\/a> following talks in Washington between Lebanon and Israel, which do not have formal diplomatic relations.<\/p>\n

According to a joint statement, the two countries agreed to establish \u201cpilot zones\u201d in which the Lebanese army would assume exclusive control of the territory, excluding all non-state actors. The ceasefire would also require a \u201ccomplete cessation\u201d of hostilities by Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

But despite the announcement, fighting has not stopped. Israel has continued to bombard southern Lebanon and, on Friday, issued forced displacement<\/a> orders for residents of at least eight villages in the Sidon district. Israeli forces also remain inside the \u201cYellow Line\u201d, an area encompassing dozens of villages now under occupation, many of which have been razed in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hezbollah, the main armed group fighting Israel and not a party to the negotiations, has dismissed the ceasefire as \u201cillusory\u201d and kept launching rockets and drone attacks. <\/p>\n

Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer, has also rejected the Washington announcement, saying Israel must withdraw from its current positions in Lebanon and return to the lines that existed before the war started.<\/p>\n

Mr Le Drian acknowledged that it is not always \u201ceasy\u201d to implement a ceasefire. \u201cWhat I can say is that there is a desire, in the conclusions of Washington, to achieve a ceasefire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that point of view, I find the mechanism <\/a>satisfactory, even though it requires considerable political will,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Significant step forward<\/b><\/p>\n

Mr Le Drian said France fully supports the Washington process, which led to the first direct talks between Lebanon and Israel in decades, stressing that only the US had the ability to \u201cbring together\u201d the two countries.<\/p>\n

The direct talks, he stated, have prevented Lebanon from becoming the \u201cvictim\u201d of negotiations in which it had no seat at the table.<\/p>\n

Iran has sought to link Lebanon’s fate<\/a> to its own, saying that a ceasefire in Lebanon is a prerequisite for any broader agreement with the US to end regional hostilities. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has accused Iran of using his country “as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Trump wants to separate talks on Lebanon and Iran<\/p>\n

For Mr Aoun, it was “essential to have direct discussions between Lebanon and Israel precisely to avoid Lebanon becoming hostage to negotiations” taking place elsewhere. <\/p>\n

Mr Le Drian lauded the idea of the \u201cpilot zones\u201d planned by the ceasefire announcement as a \u201csignificant step forward\u201d, allowing both the Israeli withdrawal and the deployment <\/a>of the Lebanese Armed Forces on the territory \u201cin an intelligent and gradual manner”. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the army would begin deploying to the \u201cpilot zones\u201d in southern Lebanon, without specifying which zones were concerned. No official map has been released, and the exact limits of the areas remain unclear.<\/p>\n

The same day, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military would continue operating in Lebanon and would not withdraw \u201cfor the time being\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Le Drian repeated that France \u201cstrongly\u201d condemns \u201cIsraeli occupation, which is completely unacceptable” under international law. \u201cWe also condemned with great determination Hezbollah’s actions since 2 March,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Asked about Israel’s targeting of journalists, rescuers, and growing allegations of war crimes<\/a> in Lebanon, he said: \u201cFrance has very firmly condemned Israel’s conduct.\u201d <\/p>\n

The latest escalation began on March 2, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in support of Iran, two days after Israeli and US forces began striking Iranian targets.<\/p>\n

Israel responded by launching a ground offensive into southern Lebanon, backed by intensive air strikes. The campaign has since killed more than 3,500 people, wounded around 10,000 and displaced more than one million, according to Lebanese authorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France is weighing alternatives to the peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, including a security mechanism that may not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1008371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,74087,36,836,837,838,1715,1426],"class_list":["post-1008370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-foreign-desk-team","tag-france","tag-hezbollah","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-standard","tag-story"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116701043588984501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1008371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}