The United States announced the country's desire to disband the contingent of peacekeepers in Lebanon.

The administration of US President Donald Trump wants to disband the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). This was reported on August 16 by The Seattle Times newspaper, citing sources.

According to the newspaper, we are talking about the UNIFIL peacekeeping mission, which was established to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel's anti-terrorist operation in 1978. The mission was expanded after a month-long 2006 war between Israel and the Shiite Hezbollah movement. The mandate of the peacekeepers expires at the end of August and must be extended by the UN Security Council to continue, The Seattle Times writes.

The United States, according to the newspaper, regards this operation as an ineffective waste of money, which simply postpones the achievement of the goal of eliminating Hezbollah's influence and restoring full control over the security of the Lebanese armed forces, which cannot yet be done. Having achieved a significant reduction in the financing of peacekeeping forces from the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a plan early last week according to which the forces of the Unified force will be curtailed within six months, the newspaper's sources say.

However, the European Union (EU) opposes curtailing the operation, as this will create a vacuum that Hezbollah can easily exploit. Europe has lobbied for a one-year extension of the peacekeepers' mandates. According to sources in The Seattle Times, the problem now lies in the unwillingness of EU countries to set a specific deadline for the end of the mission after the extension. The United States does not agree with this, the newspaper concludes.

Temporary difficulties: Russia will support the extension of the UN mission in Lebanon in the Security Council

​​​​​​​Moscow records Hezbollah's disarmament and Israeli attacks

On August 4, Russian Ambassador to Beirut Alexander Rudakov, in an interview with Izvestia, said that Russia sees the process of disarming the Hezbollah movement and transferring its weapons to the Lebanese army. Moscow believes that this is a step in the right direction. At the same time, the diplomat pointed out that the Israeli side regularly strikes Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire agreements.

Al Arabiya TV channel reported on July 23 that Hezbollah refused to lay down its arms even in the event of a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanese territory. The movement stressed that "none of the leadership has the authority to make a decision on the transfer of weapons." It was noted that this position of Hezbollah causes discontent in the Lebanese Cabinet of Ministers.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.