Overview
- Leaders and military chiefs met in Paris on Thursday to design plans for a post-UNIFIL presence and to assess what the Lebanese Armed Forces need to deploy across southern Lebanon.
- France and Italy are exploring non-UN options for a replacement mission and preparing a donor conference to fund training, equipment and mentoring for the Lebanese army.
- A June framework that links a phased Israeli withdrawal to LAF deployment and Hezbollah disarmament remains stalled and has not moved from negotiation to implementation.
- Lebanon’s army is chronically underfunded and underequipped, so President Joseph Aoun is pressing Western and Arab states for immediate cash, weapons and training to make LAF deployment credible.
- Recent Israeli strikes that killed civilians in the south have raised the risk of wider fighting and underline why negotiators say a clear international role and rapid support for the army are urgent to protect civilians and prevent escalation.