The United Nations said on Sunday Israeli tanks had burst through the gates of a base of its peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, the latest accusation of Israeli violations and attacks that have been denounced by Israel’s own allies.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the United Nations to evacuate the troops of the UNIFIL peacekeeping force from combat areas in Lebanon. Hours later, the force reported what it described as additional Israeli violations, including two Israeli Merkava tanks destroying the main gate of a base and forcibly entering before dawn that morning.
Soon after the tanks left, shells exploded 100 metres away, releasing smoke which blew across the base and sickened U.N. personnel, causing 15 to require treatment despite wearing gas masks, it said. It did not say who fired the shells or what sort of toxic substance it suspected.
It also accused Israel’s IDF military of halting a logistics convoy. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to the statement.
I talked with Squid about this and we’re restoring your comments. It looks to me like you both managed to talk right past each other.
You’re right, the UN hasn’t really done a thing to enforce resolution 1701. But then, when have UN troops EVER managed to enforce ANY resolution?
I’m old enough to remember George W. Bush arguing in favor of invading Iraq going “They’re violating 17 UN resolutions!” and the reaction from sane people was “Yeah? And Israel is violating 80? 90? We going to invade Israel too?”
Where Squid went off was the whole “UN doing nothing” thing. It’s pretty clear to me you MEANT nothing about 1701, but they are doing a lot of good humanitatarian work on the ground, you know, when Israel isn’t SHOOTING AT THEM.
https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/unifil
“Following the July/August 2006 crisis, the Council enhanced the Force and decided that in addition to the original mandate, it would, among other things, monitor the cessation of hostilities; accompany and support the Lebanese armed forces as they deploy throughout the south of Lebanon; and extend its assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the voluntary and safe return of displaced persons.”
If you need to blame somebody for failing to disarm Hezbollah, and it’s obvious to anyone they have NOT disarmed, look toward the Lebanese army.
More on the UN mandate in regards to 1701 here:
https://unifil.unmissions.org/unifil-mandate
"Assist the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in taking steps towards the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL deployed in this area.
Assist the Government of Lebanon, at its request, in securing its borders and other entry points to prevent the entry in Lebanon without its consent of arms or related materiel."
The UN is not there to enforce the disarmament of Hezbollah. That’s the job of the Lebanese, it’s their country. The UN is purely there to assist.
Thank you. I didn’t really understand what I did to warrant a ban.
And you know full well that the Lebanese are controlled by Hezbollah. Unless they want to plunge the country into another devastating civil war, they’re not going to challenge Hezbollah.
Well, if you want to argue “Lebanon is controlled by Hezbollah” then you have to fault the UN for specifically putting the Lebanese government in charge of the operation to disarm Hezbollah.
If you read 1701, there are only 2 groups authorized to be armed between the river and the border, the UN and the Lebanese army and the UN is only present to assist the Lebanese army, they aren’t there to take action on their own, that is not in their mandate.
So knowing all that, yeah, no surprise nothing has happened in 20 years. ;)