UN Security Council Ends UNIFIL Mission in Lebanon by 2026

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to end the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon after nearly five decades, extending the mandate through the end of 2026 and setting in motion a planned withdrawal that officials say will hand security responsibilities to Lebanon. The decision came as U.N. peacekeepers were the target of a drone attack this week that the mission called one of the most serious threats to its personnel since last November's ceasefire.

U.N. officials said the Security Council approved a final mandate for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, through Dec. 31, 2026. The U.N. also announced that an orderly, yearlong drawdown and withdrawal of some 10,000 peacekeeping personnel and equipment would begin in January 2027. Some reports described the vote as setting Dec. 31, 2026, as the final departure date, a discrepancy the U.N. framing seeks to reconcile by distinguishing the end of the mandate from the operational withdrawal period.

The vote follows longstanding pressure from the United States and Israel to wind down UNIFIL, which was created in 1978 to oversee Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon....