NEW YORK CITY: The UN must take its lead from authorities in Lebanon as it weighs its options for international support after the UN’s peacekeeping mission in the country ends, the head of UN peace operations said on Friday.
The views of Beirut must be central to any future arrangement, he stressed.
“We have to listen carefully to the Lebanese authorities,” Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN under-secretary-general for peace operations, told Arab News during a virtual press conference from Saudi Arabia, in reference to discussions about what UN support for the country might look like when the UN Interim Force in Lebanon’s peacekeeping mandate ends.
He was speaking during a regional tour that has taken him to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel, during which he met senior political and military officials as well as members of the UN peacekeeping force on the ground.
UNIFIL will continue to operate in Lebanon until its current mandate expires on Dec. 31 this year, with all forces remaining in place until then, Lacroix said. “There is no predrawdown mandate,” he added.
