For today"s dose of fakenews we trustfully direct you to this New York Times item:
U.N. Peacekeepers in Lebanon Get Stronger Inspection Powers for Hezbollah Arms
The headline is 100% wrong. The U.N. troops in Lebanon (UNIFIL) did not get one iota of stronger inspection powers.
Yesterday the UN Security Council had to decide about the yearly renewal of the mandate of UNIFIL. The current U.S. bitch at the UNSC, Nikki R. Haley, had order from her overlord Benjamin Netanyahoo to press for more control over Hizbullah"s weapons in Lebanon.
Last week Haley already clashed with the commanding general of the UNIFIL forces and with the UN Secretary General:
"What I find totally baffling is the view of the UNIFIL commander General Beary," Haley told reporters, accusing him of ignoring Hezbollah"s arms dumps.
"He seems to be the only person in south Lebanon who is blind. That"s an embarrassing lack of understanding on what"s going on around him," she said.
The UN and the Irish government gave full backing to General Beary. The Irish Independentnoted:
Ms Haley said there was no shortage of evidence about the large caches of Hezbollah weapons buried in south Lebanon.
However, neither she nor the Israelis have produced any evidence to back up their claims.
...
General Beary said his troops had not come across any major weapons cache in the UNIFIL-controlled area. He said if there was hard evidence of a cache of weapons, his force would assist the Lebanese armed forces (LAF) in removing them.
UNIFIL"s mandate is limited:
It is tasked with ensuring that the area between the so-called "Blue Line" – separating Israel and Lebanon – and the Litani River is free of unauthorized weapons, personnel and assets. It also cooperates with the Lebanese Armed Forces so they can fulfil their security responsibilities.
UNIFIL does not have sovereign or executive rights. It is mostly restricted to reporting and depends on the government of Lebanon for further measures.
Nikki Haley was tasked to change that - and failed:
The United States had insisted that Unifil must be more muscular in policing Hezbollah weaponry, and had suggested that it would not agree to renewing the mandate without significant changes.
France, along with other members, objected to any adjustments in Unifil’s role — authorizing its soldiers to inspect private homes, for example — that would be seen as infringing on Lebanon’s sovereignty.
France is a regular contributor to UNIFIL troops and often represents, as here, the position of the Lebanese government.
The founding task of the UNIFIL was to supervise the retreat of Israel"s invasion troop from south Lebanon. Attempts to change it into Israel"s police instrument on the ground, searching private homes of Lebanese citizens, are plainly ridiculous. The presence of UN troops is still to Israel"s benefit as it limits the open military activities of Hizbullah in the area.
Haley"s bluff was called and the renewal of the mandate passed without any changes to it. According to the UN press release, Haley was given a meaningless consolation price:
The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon for one year.
In a unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-member body requested the Secretary-General to look at ways to enhance the efforts of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), including through increasing the mission"s visible presence, through patrols and inspections, within its existing mandate and capabilities.
There is no change of UNIFIL"s mission. Guterres was asked to "look at ways" to do something and he will look and look and look again. This looking will take a long time. At some point the UNSC may consider to raise UNIFIL"s "visible presence" by mandating the wearing of red berets instead of the traditional UN blue. There will likely be no consensus about that measure.
Haley lost her bid. Her bashing of the commanding general of UNIFIL only created bad blood. Her amateurish threat to block the renewal of the resolution went nowhere.
UNIFIL did not get ANY additional authorities or powers. The New York Times headline is a cover up of Haley"s failure. It is 100% false.
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