UK foreign secretary hints at British troop increase in Lebanon

David Lammy suggests UN contribution could grow to help secure fragile peace treaty that has brought a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah

British Royal Marine Commandos in Iraq. More UK soldiers could be sent to Lebanon to help UN secure ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. AFP

Britain could send more troops to Lebanon to help the United Nations secure the border with Israel, the UK’s foreign secretary has suggested.

David Lammy told MPs that Britain might increase its troops commitment to UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) during questions from MPs on the first day of the ceasefire with Hezbollah.

While Britain has about 50 soldiers mentoring the Lebanese military, with 26,000 soldiers trained to date, it has just one soldier on the UN front line on the “Blue Line”, near the Litani River, 30 kilometres from the Israeli border.

Asked if Britain would increase its commitment to levels that other European countries have, Mr Lammy told parliament's foreign affair's committe: “I’m happy to look again at our UNIFIL contribution.”

France, which has 810 troops in UNIFIL, has also vowed to "play a full part" in security of the fragile ceasefire but will face an uphill battle in leading efforts to boost the capacities of the Lebanese army.

“We will play our full part in implementing this ceasefire agreement,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told French TV on Wednesday.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy appearing before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. PA

Mr Lammy said that any increase would be done “in consultation with our G7 partners like Italy”, which has more than 1,000 soldiers, and with the UK’s defence secretary.

“The truth is that the load is spread across the globe and I don’t want to commit troops just off the cuff,” he said in reference to more than 10,000 British military on overseas commitments.

But Britain would “absolutely stand by Lebanon” and it would “increase our support” to the war-damaged country in the coming weeks.

“We will support Lebanese as they try to secure the south,” he said. “We want to be in a situation where Lebanese can move south and Israelis can move back north.”

France wants to focus on supporting the Lebanese army, which is expected to more than double its presence to 10,000 soldiers in south Lebanon, as Israeli troops withdraw over the next two months and Hezbollah pulls back its fighters north of the Litani river.

Previous deals involving France to boost the capacities of the Lebanese army have failed.

"For this ceasefire agreement to have a chance of being a real turning point towards long-term security and stability, there is a massive need to supercharge the capabilities of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF)," Rym Momtaz, editor in chief of Carnegie Europe’s blog Strategic Europe, told The National.

Since the 1980s, Israel has insisted that the Lebanese army not have sophisticated capabilities because it wants to maintain military superiority on all of its neighbours

Rym Momtaz,
editor in chief of Carnegie Europe’s blog Strategic Europe

The Lebanese army's capacity has long been weaker than that of Hezbollah, which, before Israel started its assault on the Lebanese Iran-backed militia in late September, had up to 100,000 fighters.

At a conference in Paris in October, Mr Macron and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on financing to add 6,000 more soldiers to the national force of 60,000.

Israel's agenda

The Lebanese army's primary donor is Israel's strongest partner, the US, which has invested more than $3 billion in the armed forces between the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006 and 2022. The US has hailed the army's ability in driving out ISIS and Al Qaeda from its border areas with Syria.

But it remains unclear how much support for the Lebanese army that Israel is prepared to accept. "Since the 1980s, Israel has insisted that the Lebanese army not have the kinds of sophisticated capabilities because it wants to maintain military superiority on all of its neighbours," Ms Momtaz said.

"This Israeli posture has been a double-edged sword for Israel itself, because the weakness and lack of capabilities of the LAF opened up the space for a super militia like Hezbollah to take root and to grow as much as it has."

There is also no enforcement mechanism to make sure that Israel and Hezbollah respect the ceasefire, raising questions about its effectiveness. The ceasefire will be overseen by a US-led enhanced version of an already existing tripartite mechanism between Israel and Lebanon that is overseen by the UN.

"The reformulated and enhanced mechanism, hosted by Unifil, chaired by the US and including France, will monitor, verify and assist in ensuring enforcement of these commitments," the ceasefire's text reads.

"Israel will retain the right, with the support of the US, to bomb Lebanon if it assesses that Hezbollah is rebuilding its capabilities," Ms Momtaz said. "We need to see whether the Trump administration changes that and imposes more restrictions on Israel, or whether it continues in the path of Biden's unlimited support for a very permissive definition of Israel's right to defend itself."

France's limited leverage in the region was recently exposed by apparently backtracking on its pledge to uphold international law and implement an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli leader reportedly pushed back by vetoing France's inclusion in the Lebanon ceasefire talks. Tension was defused after France promised to mend relations with Israel, news website Axios reported. French-Israeli relations have deteriorated in the past year as Mr Macron has become increasingly vocal about Israel's conduct during the war in Gaza.

Ms Momtaz said: "While France's participation in the oversight mechanism is important for the Lebanese side, in part, to have an actor that could be a little more balanced when it comes to Israel than the US, France's leverage is very limited. We're seeing France backtrack on their initial principal position in order to safeguard their place at the negotiating table, but also at the oversight mechanism."

People return to where their homes once stood in Beirut's southern suburbs after the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire took effect. AFP