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Lebanon Rejects Reform of UNIFIL Force on Border

Israel and Lebanon are still technically at war, and a United Nations force is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire | Mahmoud Zayyat/ AFP
Israel and Lebanon are still technically at war, and a United Nations force is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire | Mahmoud Zayyat/ AFP
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Lebanon Rejects Reform of UNIFIL Force on Border

Israel and Lebanon are still technically at war, and a United Nations force is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire | Mahmoud Zayyat/ AFP
Israel and Lebanon are still technically at war, and a United Nations force is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire | Mahmoud Zayyat/ AFP

Lebanon Tuesday rejected an Israeli call to reform a UN peacekeeping force patrolling the border between the two countries days before a UN Security Council vote to renew its mandate.

Lebanon and Israel are still technically at war, and the United Nations force, UNIFIL, is tasked with monitoring a cessation of hostilities between the two sides.

Lebanon's caretaker foreign minister Charbel Wahbe separately received the ambassadors of the council's five permanent members ahead of Friday's vote, Lebanon's National News Agency said.

He handed them a memorandum stressing that "Lebanon is attached to renewing (the mission of) UNIFIL, without modifying its mandate or its numbers", it added.

Hezbollah has also rejected any change to the nature of the force's mission.

Set up in 1978, UNIFIL was beefed up after a devastating month-long war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel accuses UNIFIL, whose latest mandate expires at the end of August, of not being active enough against Hezbollah.

It accuses the group of stockpiling weapons at the border, and is pushing for the UN force to be allowed to inspect private property.

UN chief Antonio Guterres in June called for an improved surveillance capacity for the force, including thermal-imaging cameras, hi-tech binoculars, and drones.

The US ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, in May called for the Security Council to empower UNIFIL or alter its staffing and resources to better fulfill its mandate.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah later the same month rejected any change to the nature of the peacekeeping mission, and lashed out at US pressure over the issue.

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HRW: Both Warring Parties in Sudan Acquired New Weapons

Women shout slogans as they take part in a demonstration on the opening day of Sudan ceasefire talks, in Geneva, on August 14, 2024. (AFP)
Women shout slogans as they take part in a demonstration on the opening day of Sudan ceasefire talks, in Geneva, on August 14, 2024. (AFP)
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HRW: Both Warring Parties in Sudan Acquired New Weapons

Women shout slogans as they take part in a demonstration on the opening day of Sudan ceasefire talks, in Geneva, on August 14, 2024. (AFP)
Women shout slogans as they take part in a demonstration on the opening day of Sudan ceasefire talks, in Geneva, on August 14, 2024. (AFP)

Both warring parties in Sudan, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have newly acquired modern foreign-made weapons and military equipment, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on Monday.

It called on the UN Security Council to renew and expand the arms embargo and its restrictions on the Darfur region to all of Sudan and hold violators to account.

HRW said it analyzed 49 photos and videos, most apparently filmed by fighters from both sides, posted on the social media platforms Facebook, Telegram, TikTok, and X, showing weapons used or captured in the conflict.

The apparently new equipment includes armed drones, drone jammers, anti-tank guided missiles, truck-mounted multi-barrel rocket launchers, and mortar munitions, and are produced by companies registered in China, Iran, Russia and Serbia.

Although HRW did not specify how the warring parties acquired the new equipment, it noted that the Sudan conflict is one of the world’s worst humanitarian and human rights crises.

“The warring parties are committing atrocities with impunity, and the newly acquired weapons and equipment are likely to be used in the commission of further crimes,” it said.

HRW warned that the SAF and the RSF may use such weapons and equipment to continue to commit war crimes and other serious human rights violations not just in Darfur, but across the country.

It said the UN Security Council is expected to decide on September 11 whether to renew the Sudan sanctions regime, which prohibits the transfer of military equipment to the Darfur region.

The organization noted that since April 2023, the new conflict has affected most of Sudan’s states, but Security Council members have yet to take steps to expand the arms embargo to the whole country.

HRW said its findings demonstrate both the inadequacy of the current Darfur-only embargo and the grave risks posed by the acquisition of new weapons by the warring parties.

“A countrywide arms embargo would contribute to addressing these issues by facilitating the monitoring of transfers to Darfur and preventing the legal acquisition of weapons for use in other parts of Sudan,” it stressed.

The NGO said that the Sudanese government has opposed an expansion of the arms embargo and in recent months has lobbied members of the Security Council to end the sanctions regime and remove the Darfur embargo altogether.

“The prevalence of atrocities by the warring parties creates a real risk that weapons or equipment acquired by the parties would most likely be used to perpetuate serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law, harming civilians,” HRW wrote in its report.

It therefore called on the Security Council to publicly condemn individual governments that are violating the existing arms embargo on Darfur and take urgently needed measures to sanction individuals and entities that are violating the embargo.