Why an 18-year-old UN resolution can solve the Lebanon-Israel conflict

Why an 18-year-old UN resolution can solve the Lebanon-Israel conflict

With a possibly impending Ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel An 18-year-old United Nations resolution is gaining renewed traction as a possible plan to end the conflict. Israel's Council of Ministers will vote on such an agreement on Tuesday, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN on Monday. The agreement is expected to be approved.

Basics of the ceasefire

The planned 60-day ceasefire aims to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 in the hope that it can serve as a basis for lasting peace. That resolution was passed in 2006 to end a 34-day war between Israel and Lebanon and ensured relative calm in the region for nearly two decades. However, this calm was broken the day after Hamas' October 7, 2022 attack on Israel, when Hezbollah attacked in a show of solidarity, triggering over a year of conflict.

The background to Resolution 1701

Resolution 1701 requires Israel to withdraw all troops from southern Lebanon and stipulates that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers may be present as armed groups in the south of the Litani River. The US, which is currently mediating between Israel and Lebanon, believes that a return to the principles of the resolution is in the interests of both parties. However, they are pushing for stricter enforcement mechanisms. Israel argues that Hezbollah has violated the resolution on multiple occasions, while Lebanon says Israel has regularly violated the agreement over two decades by sending warplanes into Lebanese airspace.

A brief historical overview

Israel launched an invasion in 1982 Lebanon, after it was attacked by Palestinian militants. Israel occupied southern Lebanon for nearly two decades until it was driven out in 2000 by Hezbollah, a group founded with support from Iran to resist Israeli occupation. In 2000 the UN established the so-called blue line, which serves as a withdrawal border for Israeli forces from Lebanon. This border is now considered the de facto border between the two countries.

The situation since October 2023

On October 8, 2023, Hezbollah began firing on Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms in what it later described as solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, a day after Hamas launched a full-scale attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage. Israel countered these attacks. Between October 8, 2023 and the end of June 2024, UNIFIL reported 15,101 border crossings, with most from Israel to Lebanon and fewer from Lebanon to Israel. The conflict escalated, prompting a massive military offensive by Israel and a ground invasion of Lebanon this year.

Positions on Resolution 1701

The US has made a proposal to Lebanon, within the framework of UN Resolution 1701, seeking a 60-day ceasefire. The proposal focuses on stricter enforcement mechanisms and the Lebanese army's role in this. Nonetheless, some Israeli officials insist that simply returning to Resolution 1701 is not enough; Israel must retain the right to respond to Hezbollah targets in Lebanon if violations occur again after a ceasefire. Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's finance minister, stressed the need for "full operational freedom" for the Israeli army in southern Lebanon.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati dismissed reports of requirements for Israeli forces to operate in Lebanon as “speculation,” stressing that he had not seen such a clause in the proposal. Nabih Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese parliament and a leading politician in talks with Hezbollah, also made it clear that the US proposal does not include any mention of operational freedom for Israeli forces in Lebanon.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said there was an exchange of diverse views on the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. This underlines the complexity of the existing situation and the challenges facing both parties as they pursue a possible peace.