UN chief proposes options to help end Israel-Hezbollah conflict after peacekeepers leave Lebanon

The United Nations chief has proposed three options to help end the decades-old conflict between Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and Israel when the 8,100-member U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon ends on Dec. 31.

All of the options presented to the U.N. Security Council by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would continue U.N. military monitoring of the boundary between Israel and Lebanon, support Lebanese forces in deploying throughout the country and strengthen political efforts to end the fighting, which has persisted despite a nominal ceasefire.

U.N. peacekeepers have played a significant role in monitoring the security situation in southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, for decades. Six of the peacekeepers have been killed in recent months.

Bowing to demands from the United States and its close ally Israel, the Security Council voted unanimously in August 2025 to terminate the peacekeeping mission known as UNFIL and asked Guterres to present options for implementing a 2006 resolution that ended a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The resolution demands that Hezbollah disarm, Israeli forces withdraw and the Lebanese army deploy throughout the country as the sole military force. None of this has happened.

Read more: AP