The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they unfold.
UN debates future withdrawal of Lebanon peacekeeping force
The United Nations Security Council has begun to debate a resolution drafted by France to extend the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon for a year with the ultimate aim to withdraw it.
Israel and the United States have reportedly opposed the renewal of the force’s mandate, and it is unclear if the draft text has backing from Washington, which wields a veto on the Council.
A US State Department spokesman says, “We don’t comment on ongoing UN Security Council negotiations,” as talks continue on the fate of the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), deployed since 1978 to separate Lebanon and Israel.
The text, first reported by Reuters, would “extend the mandate of UNIFIL until August 31, 2026” but “indicates its intention to work on a withdrawal of UNIFIL.”
That would be on the condition that Lebanon’s government is the “sole provider of security in southern Lebanon… and that the parties agree on a comprehensive political arrangement.”
Under a truce that ended a recent war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, Beirut’s army has been deploying in south Lebanon and dismantling the terror group’s infrastructure there.
Lebanon has been grappling with the thorny issue of disarming Hezbollah, with the cabinet this month tasking the army with developing a plan to do so by the end of the year. The Iran-backed group has pushed back.
Under the truce, Israel was meant to completely withdraw from Lebanon, though it has kept forces in several areas it deems strategic and continues to carry out strikes across Lebanon. Israel’s forces have also had tense encounters with the UN blue helmets.
The draft resolution under discussion also “calls for enhanced diplomatic efforts to resolve any dispute or reservation pertaining to the international border between Lebanon and Israel.”
A vote of the 15-member council is expected on August 25 before the expiration of the force’s mandate at the end of the month.
North Korea’s Kim calls for rapid nuclear buildup amid US-South Korea exercises
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says his country needs to rapidly expand its nuclear armament and calls US-South Korea military exercises an “obvious expression of their will to provoke war,” state media KCNA reports.
South Korea and its ally the United States kicked off joint military drills this week, including testing an upgraded response to heightened North Korean nuclear threats.
Pyongyang regularly criticizes such drills as rehearsals for invasion and sometimes responds with weapons tests, but Seoul and Washington say they are purely defensive.
The 11-day annual exercises, called Ulchi Freedom Shield, will be on a similar scale to 2024 but adjusted by rescheduling 20 out of 40 field training events to September, South Korea’s military said earlier. Those delays come as South Korean President Lee Jae Myung says he wants to ease tensions with North Korea, though analysts are skeptical about Pyongyang’s response.
The exercises are a “clear expression of … their intention to remain most hostile and confrontational” to North Korea, Kim says, according to KCNA’s English translation of his remarks.
He says the security environment requires the North to “rapidly expand” its nuclear armament, noting that recent US-South Korea exercises involved a “nuclear element.”
Trump, EU’s von der Leyen discuss plight of children in war
US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said yesterday they spoke about missing children due to conflict as Trump hosted European and NATO leaders in Washington to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, raised the plight of children in Ukraine and Russia in a personal letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, two White House officials said when Trump met Putin at a summit in Alaska Friday. Trump hand-delivered that letter to Putin.
Trump and the European leader “have been discussing the massive Worldwide problem of missing children,” the US president said on social media late yesterday, without mentioning any particular country in his post. “This is, likewise, a big subject with my wife, Melania.”