What Replaces UNIFIL in Lebanon After 31 December?

Lebanon’s prime minister has asked for a new Security Council resolution to keep an international force in the south of his country after 31 December, when the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, runs out. Nawaf Salam said so to the UN’s deputy secretary-general, Amina Mohammed, in a meeting reported on Saturday 14 November.

“UNIFIL in its current form will not continue, and it must not continue,” said Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the United Nations, in an interview published on 10 November. He is expected in Beirut on Monday 16 November. A day before that interview, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the replacement “doesn’t have to be a military mission.”

So what replaces UNIFIL? Rubio said on 9 November that it was too early to give details, and the Security Council, where the United States holds a veto, has 46 days left.

Salam said Lebanon wants a continued international presence in the south under a Security Council mandate and is ready to consult Council members on a new resolution. President Joseph Aoun said his first choice is still to renew UNIFIL itself. Rubio said the United States is working on a way to monitor the “pilot zones” of the June agreement between Lebanon and Israel, and that the monitors could be civilians. The Council said in August 2025 that it was extending the force “for a final time”, to 31 December 2026.

The account of Salam’s meeting with Mohammed, published in Arabic on 14 November, said he stressed “the need to avoid any international vacuum in south Lebanon.” It said Lebanon needs a continued international presence with a mandate from the Security Council, and that the government is open to consulting Council members on “a new resolution that guarantees the continuation of the international role in the area.” The translations are Silent Dossier’s.

The account said he also called for a full Israeli withdrawal to the international border, an end to Israeli attacks and the extension of state authority over all Lebanese territory by the state’s own forces. He said the same in New York in September, during the UN General Assembly.

Aoun met Mohammed separately. “The Lebanese priority remains the continuation of UNIFIL’s mission and the renewal of its mandate,” he said, in the account published on 14 November. He said Lebanon would accept an alternative under the UN umbrella to prevent a security vacuum. He added one legal condition: “Resolution 1701 must remain the legal reference and the basis for any future international arrangements in the south.”

Rubio met French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday 9 November and told reporters afterwards that the two had discussed what follows UNIFIL. “One of the things that we’re working on from our perspective is finding the ability to monitor the implementation of the pilot zones,” he said.

“It doesn’t have to be a military mission. It could be a civilian mission,” Rubio said. “We need a verification system trusted by everyone and trusted by both sides that both sides are complying with their obligations under the agreements that are in place.” He added, “We have some ideas about how to achieve it, and I think France could be helpful in that regard.”

Waltz said in the interview published the next day that the United States is working with international partners to draw the mission down, and that the Lebanese Armed Forces should secure the country.

The G7 foreign ministers, meeting in Paris, said in their communique of 10 November that Lebanon needs a “robust, credible, and long-lasting security architecture.” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that day, “I am hopeful that we will reach a consensus.” Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said in October that the EU favours a UN peacekeeping mandate in the south.

UNIFIL is the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, and its mandate ends on 31 December 2026. The Security Council created it in March 1978 after an Israeli invasion and enlarged it in August 2006 under Resolution 1701, which ended that summer’s war between Israel and Hezbollah. It has about 7,500 personnel from nearly 50 countries. They patrol between the Litani River and the Blue Line, the 120-kilometre line the UN drew in 2000 to confirm Israel’s withdrawal.

Resolution 2790, adopted unanimously on 28 August 2025, said the Council was extending the force “for a final time” and told it to withdraw within a year of 31 December 2026. The same resolution asked the secretary-general for options. Antonio Guterres sent three on 1 June 2026; the largest proposed 350 unarmed observers with four infantry battalions, the smallest 215 observers with two light battalions. The Council has announced no choice among them.

On 26 June, Lebanon, Israel and the United States signed a framework agreement in Washington. Under it, the Lebanese army takes over designated pilot zones as armed groups are disarmed and Israeli troops pull back, and a US-backed military coordination group verifies each step. It provides for no foreign force. Our earlier analysis explains why Washington is pressing Lebanon over Hezbollah’s explosives under that framework.

No US official has described the planned mechanism in public beyond Rubio’s remarks. Israel has not said whether it would accept UN-mandated observers in the zone its troops hold. No Council member has announced a draft resolution. Neither government has confirmed Waltz’s programme in Beirut.

Waltz is expected to meet Aoun, Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on 16 and 17 November, though neither government has announced the meetings. Watch whether he says “Security Council mandate” in Beirut, or only “mechanism.” Watch whether France circulates a draft resolution before December. Resolution 2790 says UNIFIL stops operating on 31 December. If the Council adopts nothing before then, the Lebanese army will be the only force between the Litani and the Blue Line that both Beirut and the UN recognise, with Israeli troops still inside that area.