The Security Council voted Thursday for UN peacekeepers to leave Lebanon in 2027, allowing only one final extension after pressure from Israel and its US ally to end the nearly 50-year-old force.

Israel hailed the upcoming termination of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and urged the Beirut government to exert its authority after an Israeli military campaign devastated Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah.

With the United States dangling a veto threat, the Security Council voted unanimously for a resolution that will extend UNIFIL's mandate "a final time."

France, which has a long legacy in Lebanon, had initially sought the routine one-year extension to the force without a firm commitment to ending it.

But faced with US pressure, France put forward the compromise that authorizes UNIFIL through December 31, 2026 and then an "orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal" within a year.

Some 10,800 peacekeepers have been acting as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon since 1978, remaining after Israel ended an occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000.........

© Al Monitor