The United Nations' peacekeeping chief warned on Wednesday that the departure of UN "Blue Helmet" forces from Lebanon and Western Sahara risks leaving a dangerous security vacuum, asking what would stop border incidents from turning into clashes once no third party stands between the armies involved.

Source: UN News

"What happens when there is no longer a third-party presence between the Lebanese army and the Israel Defense Forces?" asked Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, briefing journalists at UN Headquarters in New York after returning from Lebanon.

Mr Lacroix said the organisation was losing some of its longest-standing military deployments, with no guarantee that the countries concerned could maintain stability on their own, and urged the Security Council to give "clear guidance" on what, if anything, should replace the missions.

Source: UNifeed (UN media)

7,500UNIFIL peacekeepers still serving in southern Lebanon
1978Year UNIFIL was first deployed to Lebanon
35 yearsMINURSO's lifespan in Western Sahara before it closed on October 31
~10,000People Lacroix estimates still live between the Blue Line and Israel's forward defence line inside Lebanon

Lebanon's leaders fear the vacuum

Around 7,500 peacekeepers are still serving with the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which has patrolled the border with Israel since 1978. The force acts as a go-between for the Lebanese and Israeli armies, monitors violations of the ceasefire line and helps humanitarian aid reach villages in the south. It is due to cease operations at the end of this year.

Mr Lacroix said President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had told him during his visit that they feared a "security vacuum" once the peacekeepers leave, with no one left to stop border incidents from turning into clashes. He also raised questions over the future of the Blue Line, the line the UN drew to mark Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.

There is a humanitarian cost too. Mr Lacroix offered a cautious estimate that about 10,000 people are still living between the Blue Line and the forward defence line Israel has set up inside Lebanese territory, and their access to aid depends heavily on UNIFIL.

Secretary-General António Guterres put forward options for a follow-on presence in June, but the Security Council has yet to agree on any arrangement, Mr Lacroix said. Lebanon has campaigned for an extension, and in October Mr Lacroix told Reuters in Beirut that talks on the mission's future needed to begin soon; they still have not produced a decision.

Source: Reuters (October 14 background)

The Western Sahara mission's end was reported by Awaaz Punjab when the mandate expired and the liquidation began. Read: MINURSO liquidation begins in Western Sahara

Western Sahara: the mission that has already gone

The same Council deadlock has already ended the UN's presence in Western Sahara. The UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) shut down on October 31 after 35 years, when Russia vetoed a United States draft that would have reshaped the mission around a solution based on autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty, and a rival Russian text calling for a one-year renewal fell short of the nine votes needed to pass.

MINURSO was set up in 1991 to monitor a ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario Front. It never held the self-determination referendum it was created to organise, and hostilities in the territory resumed in 2020. Mr Lacroix confirmed the mission is now in its liquidation phase, with withdrawal its only remaining task, and said the UN was urging the parties to show restraint while remaining committed to a political solution that provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

Golan complaints and a new danger from drones

Mr Lacroix also recently visited Syria and the peacekeepers serving in the Golan, where he said UN observers were receiving complaints from civilians about detentions, movement restrictions and property seizures linked to the Israeli military presence. Their mediation had led to several detained people being released and some property being returned, he said.

In Abyei, the territory disputed by Sudan and South Sudan, recent drone attacks have highlighted another growing danger, with Blue Helmets having to adapt to technologies that put both their own personnel and the civilians they protect at risk. The UN is reviewing its military and technological capabilities, but Mr Lacroix said the answer could not be purely technical: above all, he said, it was a matter of "political responsibility".

What happens next rests with the Security Council. If its members cannot agree on a follow-on presence for Lebanon before UNIFIL's mandate ends on December 31, the border that peacekeepers have watched since 1978 will be left to the Lebanese army and the Israeli military alone — the outcome Mr Lacroix spent Wednesday warning against.