A former U.N. soldier gave an interview to Danish media on Sunday in which he said the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Lebanon was “completely at Hezbollah’s mercy,” able to patrol only in areas where the Iran-backed terrorist organization allowed them to operate.
The soldier, who requested anonymity and used the name “Michael,” is a former employee of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO). He was assigned to work in Lebanon about ten years ago.
UNTSO assists peacekeeping operations by providing military observers to monitor ceasefire arrangements. Its very first assignment was monitoring the Israeli-Arab Armistice in the Palestinian territories in 1949.
Michael said his job was monitoring compliance with U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolution 1701, which called for Hezbollah to remove all of its forces from southern Lebanon. He said that Hezbollah was not only illegally present in the region, but had complete control over the controversial U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the peacekeeping mission for Lebanon established in 1978.
“We were totally subject to Hezbollah. We clearly had limited freedom of movement. For example, we never operated after dark for fear of Hezbollah. So they had free time in the evening and night hours,” he said.
Michael said Hezbollah simply blocked UNTSO observers and UNIFIL peacekeepers from entering districts in southern Lebanon.
“They simply blocked the road. They were not visibly armed but aggressive, and it was quite clear that they were members of Hezbollah – we knew very well who decided things, especially in the Shiite cities,” he said.
“They didn’t want us to see what they were doing,” he charged.
Even more outrageously, Michael said U.N. observers were ordered to withdraw and look the other way when Hezbollah conducted suspicious activities under their noses.
“When we patrolled the Blue Line, we often saw ‘civilians’ very close to the Israeli military installations taking pictures. When that happened, we withdrew and observed from a distance – we were simply instructed to do so,” he said.
Michael said Hezbollah forcibly confiscated his equipment when he tried to collect evidence of their illegal activities. Some of his colleagues in UNTSO and UNIFIL did not try all that hard.
“We had a number of interpreters who were indoctrinated into Hezbollah. I ended up throwing one of them out of my car once while he was praising Hassan Nasrallah. I simply didn’t want to listen to it,” he said.
Nasrallah was the dictatorial leader of Hezbollah for nearly three decades, until the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) eliminated him with an airstrike in late September.
Michael said that all of the incredible violations he described to his Danish interviewers were duly reported to UNTSO officials, but “nothing ever happened.”
“We did not hear back from them, and nothing was initiated. It was wildly frustrating, and it only confirmed to me what I had experienced in other countries I was posted to: The U.N. is incompetent,” he asserted.
Michael’s testimony is timely because Israel is feuding with UNIFIL during the IDF operation in Lebanon. The Israelis accuse UNIFIL of turning a blind eye to illegal Hezbollah activities, exactly as Michael described.
UNIFIL accuses Israeli forces of deliberately targeting its positions, while the Israelis have asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to withdraw UNIFIL forces from the conflict region because they are interfering with legitimate Israeli military operations and – either accidentally or deliberately – providing cover for Hezbollah.
“Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Guterres last week.
Netanyahu advised the U.N. to direct its ire over killed and injured UNIFIL troops to Hezbollah, which is using U.N. forces as “human shields.”
On Monday, the U.N. once again accused Israeli forces of “deliberately” targeting a UNIFIL watchtower and security fence.
“Yet again, we remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of U.N. personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of U.N. premises at all times,” UNIFIL said.
