UN Security Council Resolution 1701 of August 11, 2006 ended the Second Lebanon War and outlined the security regime that has been in effect for the past decade between Israel and its northern neighbor. To support the Lebanese government in fulfilling the resolution, UNIFIL, the temporary UN force in Lebanon (first established in 1978 by UN Security Council Resolution 425 following the IDF’s Operation Litani), was expanded from 2,000 soldiers before the 2006 war to 12,000 troops of higher quality. In the decade since its reestablishment, UNIFIL II helped stabilize the post-war situation, and maintain the calm between Israel and Lebanon, reflecting the international community’s ongoing commitment to stability in this sector. At the same time, UNIFIL’s operations – as well as its inaction and passivity – demonstrate the limits of multinational UN forces entrusted with a disputed mission and authorized by a limited and limiting mandate in a mixed state/non-state environment that is a twilight zone as far as sovereignty is concerned. The critical influence of political considerations on operational reality on the ground is likewise readily apparent.

Resolution 1701 sought to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and correct the conditions that led to the war, i.e., armed forces in Lebanon that are not subordinate to the national government, deployed in southern Lebanon along the Israeli border, arm themselves freely and act at will. The resolution called on the Lebanese government to exercise its full sovereignty over all of its national territory, deploy the Lebanese army south of the Litani River, and ensure “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”.

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