❗️Salam calls for replacement force to prevent ‘vacuum’ after UNIFIL withdrawal

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stressed at the UN on Friday that steps must be taken to “avert the vacuum” that could result from the withdrawal of the peacekeeping mission deployed in southern Lebanon if no viable replacement is agreed upon.

Under US pressure, the UN Security Council voted last month to end the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in December. The mission has been deployed in Lebanon since 1978.

“What we wish to stress here and today is the need to avert the vacuum that UNIFIL’s withdrawal could create, were it to take place without agreement on a new international force to replace it,” Salam said in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

UNIFIL currently comprises 7,500 peacekeepers from around 50 countries. The troops are stationed in southern Lebanon along the 120-kilometer (75-mile) Blue Line, which serves as a de facto border between Lebanon and Israel.

Salam also called for Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanese territory and for Beirut to continue expanding state authority across the country, claiming that “weapons (are) held by the state alone.”