“Robust mandate,” 2006 edition
I have expressed my skepticism about the “new” UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) before, here and here. France’s behavior in particular has been disgraceful though at some level understandable; I suspect what happened was that the Foreign Ministry drafted the relevant parts of Security Council Resolution 1701 and handed them over to Defense to implement only once it had been passed. The military planners then got cold feet because of the various holes in 1701.
Today’s news only seem to confirm that 1701 will not deliver the “robust mandate” some had claimed it would. According to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and other newspapers, the deployment of the German contingent for UNIFIL (a navy unit) is being delayed by various conditions the Lebanese government has imposed: UNIFIL patrol boats should not be allowed near the coast and should only be able to search suspicious vessels after receiving permission from the Lebanese government (of which Hezbollah, of course, is a member).
The issue is so delicate that the Germans have now bounced the Lebanese conditions back to the UN for a review whether they are compatible with 1701.
During the war it sounded like the Lebanese and the Europeans couldn’t wait to get a force in place. Now, it sounds as if everyone were just fine with the status quo.
