Post-UNIFIL: Washington holds 'active consultations' with Paris, Beirut and Tel Aviv

BEIRUT — The United States, which firmly opposes renewing the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), says it is holding “active consultations” with several countries, notably Israel and Lebanon, on alternatives to the deployment of international troops south of the Litani River, along the border with Israel.

The U.S. administration is holding “active consultations” with France, Israel, Lebanon and other stakeholders to explore what a future peacekeeping mission in Lebanon might look like, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told the Financial Times. France, which acts as Lebanon’s “penholder” at the U.N., is advocating for a “new international framework” to support the country and prevent a “security vacuum” in the border region, where Israel occupies around 620 square kilometers and continues to carry out daily bombardments.

“We are reforming how peacekeeping is done,” Waltz told the FT, pointing to Washington’s cuts in funding for numerous U.N. agencies, particularly peacekeeping missions. Some missions, he argued, “we have been sitting around for 30, 40, 50 years ” or “cost a billion dollars a year” and “freezing conflicts instead of resolving them.” In this context, he said, “the current form UNIFIL will not continue, or, we do not believe it should continue.”

Under U.S. pressure, UNIFIL’s mandate was renewed in August 2025 for a final year and is due to expire in December, after which more than 7,500 personnel from 47 countries are scheduled to withdraw gradually.

Separately, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott wrote on X that the United States wants to continue working with Beirut and Tel Aviv to implement the “framework agreement” reached on June 26, with the aim of “putting an end, once and for all, to the cycle of conflict.” He identified three key elements: disarming Hezbollah, a commitment made by Beirut but rejected by the group itself; ensuring “long-term security for Israel and Lebanon”; and establishing “peaceful, good-neighborly relations” between the two countries, based on “mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

In his interview with the Financial Times, Waltz also said Washington was preparing for a prolonged conflict with Iran, despite President Donald Trump’s initial suggestion, at the start of the offensive against Tehran on Feb. 28, that it would last only a few weeks. The United States could still be at an impasse with Iran “in a year’s time,” Waltz said.

“I’m not going to put out hypotheticals. One would hope that they’ll come to the table in a meaningful way before that,” he added. But “the president and the U.S. Navy can maintain this blockade [on Iranian ports] for the foreseeable future,” he said.

Washington will not have achieved its objectives in Iran until the country’s stockpiles of highly enriched nuclear material have been destroyed and a “serious agreement on enrichment” has been reached.