Kinshasa, June 3rd, 2026 (CPA).- The French Prime Minister has urged on Wednesday other European countries to help France to ‘secure’ Lebanon, following the departure of UN peacekeepers at the end of 2026, which has raised fears of a security vacuum whilst a part of the south of the country is occupied by Israel, international media have informed. “Other European countries must be more at the forefront in helping us to secure Lebanon,” has declared Sebastien Lecornu, the French Prime Minister. “To avoid precisely such a vacuum (in security, ed.), as of now, France has already made this offer of assistance” with “several scenarios”: “a scenario involving 5,500 troops, a scenario involving around 3,000, and a scenario involving around 2,000,” he has added. In the absence of a UN alternative, other proposals could be put forward, such as a force under the European Union.
Italy, France and Spain, major contributors to UNIFIL, have expressed their willingness to maintain forces in Lebanon. “What France is doing is putting an offer of military resources on the table right now, which makes it possible to envisage a new mandate. Did you say an intervention? I don’t know about that. (…) In any case, that remains to be defined,” Mr Lecornu has maintained. “And we will do this with our European partners because at times we have been too isolated in this matter. Fortunately, the Italians were there,” he has said. Mr Lecornu has also promised to double or triple humanitarian aid to Lebanon in the coming weeks, calling on Israel to end this war and put an end to the illegal occupation.
For his part, the UN General Secretary has recommended maintaining UN troops, an option that is likely to face opposition from the United States and Israel. Lebanon has advocated for an international force to replace the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), whose mandate expires on December 31st, it is reminded.