The UNIFIL has faced a growing number of casualties as Israel continues air raids despite a ceasefire and Hezbollah has responded with rockets and drones. Published On 2 May 20262 May 2026China’s ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, has said there is a need to re-examine the UN Security Council’s decision to terminate the mandate of the longstanding peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, which is due to end later this year.Created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops after the 1978 invasion, the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) saw its mandate expanded after the 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah and was responsible for a demilitarised buffer between the opposing sides.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listHowever, the UNSC unanimously resolved last year to begin withdrawing the UNIFIL mission’s 10,800 international peacekeepers by December 2026.Speaking to reporters on Friday at the UN headquarters in New York, Ambassador Fu expressed China’s deep concern about the situation in Lebanon as Beijing assumed the council’s rotating presidency for May.He observed that a genuine ceasefire did not exist in Lebanon, describing the current state of conflict as merely a “lesser fire”.“We do believe that we should revisit the decision, actually, to withdraw the UNIFIL,” Fu said, referring to the resolution passed by the council in August 2025.“I think at least the view of the overwhelming majority of the Security Council is that this is not the time to really, to withdraw the UNIFIL out of that part of the country,” Fu said. China’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong addresses a UNSC meeting in 2025 [File: Richard Drew/AP]China is waiting for a report from the UN secretariat, expected in June, “before we take our position”, he added. Advertisement Fu said, “It is incumbent on Israel to stop this bombardment of Lebanon.”According to Lebanese authorities, Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2 h …
