Who Will Do Lebanon’s Job?

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has asked the U.S. to establish a binding timetable for the faltering Trilateral Framework, which calls for Hezbollah’s disarmament in return for Israel’s withdrawal. Beirut, however, treats deadlines as suggestions, repeatedly promising to dismantle Hezbollah’s military infrastructure without delivering. In his meetings in Washington last week, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam urged the U.S. to jump-start the Trilateral Framework it brokered between Lebanon and Israel on June 26, 2026. He called for “operationalizing” the Framework, which stipulates a “reciprocal, sequenced process with clear conditions.” To “operationalize” the Trilateral Framework, Lebanon needs a security arrangement that allows a credible force to control the south. Given that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) views imposing state authority by force as tantamount to civil war, a reliable military will need to assume the responsibilities the Lebanese army is unwilling to carry out. Talks between Lebanon and Israel have stalled over Hezbollah’s disarmament, with Israel insisting that LAF efforts to dismantle the militia be independently verified in designated pilot zones. After all, the Israel Defense Forces withdrew from Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh, the first pilot zone under the Trilateral Framework to be handed back to Lebanon, only for Hezbollah to return. Few in Lebanon, let alone Israel, believe the Lebanese government’s claim that it has fulfilled its responsibility to disarm Hezbollah in the first pilot zone and prevent the Iran-backed group from reestablishing its presence. The Trilateral Framework can move forward only after a third party that independently verifies, for Israel, that Lebanon has fulfilled its responsibilities in a pilot zone. The process would then expand to another, potentially larger, area. But who will carry out the verification? The U.S. refuses to play this role, primarily because verification would require an indefinite on-the-ground presence to ensure Hezbollah cannot reassert control. Lebanon proposed France, but Israel rejected the suggestion. The two countries then agreed on Italy, but Italy said it would only participate under a UN mandate. That brought everyone back to square one, discussing the revival of an international peacekeeping force that has proven useless and whose mandate is nearing its end. First deployed in 1978 and expanded in mandate and troop size in 2006, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has miserably failed in its mission due to structural obstacles. UNIFIL lacks a dedicated intelligence branch capable of collecting actionable information on the ground. When Israel provides UNIFIL with intelligence, the force can deploy only alongside the LAF, which is deeply infiltrated by pro-Hezbollah officers and sympathizers who can leak operational information. As a result, UNIFIL cannot operate freely without alerting the militia in advance. While UNIFIL remained blind, Hezbollah operatives, backed by Iranian funding, dug hundreds of miles of tunnels through the solid rock beneath southern Lebanon. Yet despite the scale of this engineering effort, UNIFIL personnel did not detect or report the digging until Israel launched its counter-tunnel operation in 2018. At the time, the tunnels were not defensive redoubts but part of Hezbollah’s plans to storm into Israeli territory. Rather than functioning as a true security force, UNIFIL has spent a significant portion of its $500 million annual budget running vaccination clinics, digging water wells, and building infrastructure in local villages. While these projects have provided an economic bonanza for the area, they have done absolutely nothing to enforce demilitarization. The Trilateral Framework is stuck in a knot. Until Hezbollah is disarmed, Israel will not relinquish control of the border areas, leaving half a million displaced Shia residents unable to return to their homes and forcing them to live in miserable conditions as refugees in their own country. For the past two years, Lebanon has promised to restore its sovereignty. Yet Beirut has barely moved a finger to follow through. Instead, the Lebanese leadership expects either the U.S. or an international force to do the job for them, so that they can brag that they “ended the Israeli occupation.” If the international community manages to restore Lebanon’s sovereignty while the Lebanese remain bystanders in their own country, it will then be expected to provide tens of billions of dollars to rebuild the south. And what do Lebanese officials have to do? Evidently, nothing. They will enjoy the pomp that comes with public office, pose for photo ops, and pretend they are capable, sovereign, and in command. Hussain Abdul-Hussain is a research fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a columnist focusing on Lebanon and broader Arab affairs.