Berri to Asharq Al-Awsat: UNIFIL alternative is another force operating under UN banner
BEIRUT: The United States' persistent refusal to renew the mandate of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) demands a search for an alternative UN peacekeeping force that has both European and American backing to operate in southern Lebanon, Lebanese parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Berri warned that without such a force, there would be no legal basis to maintain an international presence.
This international role remains essential as the sole framework supporting the Lebanese Army's efforts to deploy and extend state sovereignty over all its territory, which is conditioned on a full Israeli withdrawal to the international borders, he went on to say.
Berri stressed that bilateral agreements between Lebanon and Israel are not an alternative to an international presence in the south, so long as Tel Aviv refuses to implement what the two countries reached under the US-sponsored "Framework Agreement."
