France and Italy pitch Lebanon force

Emmanuel Macron and Giorgia Meloni used their Antibes summit this week to push for a multinational coalition to take over from UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, when its mandate expires on 31 December 2026 (Daily Sabah, UN News). They described the aim as avoiding a "dangerous security vacuum" in southern Lebanon.

For Malta, this is not a distant diplomatic file. Any European security operation in the eastern Mediterranean quickly becomes a question of ports, airfields, evacuation routes and political risk. The issue is not only whether France and Italy want a new mission, but whether other European governments can legally and politically send people into one.

Two plans, one label

The Macron-Meloni language is broad: a coalition, coordinated with the EU and the UN, to strengthen Lebanese sovereignty (Euronews). The plan being developed by the EEAS, the EU's diplomatic service, is more limited: a three-year civilian-military mission to advise and train Lebanese armed forces on border security, surveillance and maritime protection (Devdiscourse, LBC Group).

That difference is not bureaucratic small print. A training mission can be presented at home as support for Lebanon's institutions. An armed peacekeeping force asks parliaments to accept the risk of casualties.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has put forward his own options, ranging from about 2,000 to more than 5,500 uniformed UN personnel to monitor the ceasefire and support the Lebanese army (UN News). A successor force could therefore be a redesigned UN operation, an EU mission or a coalition of willing states. Each model gives contributors a different legal basis, and different political cover. The France-Italy initiative is competing with the UN track as much as preparing to replace it.

The domestic locks

Every European capital that might send troops has its own lock on the door.

Ireland is the clearest example. Irish law requires three approvals for overseas deployments of more than 12 soldiers: the Government, the Dáil and a UN mandate. Cabinet has approved a bill to remove the UN requirement, but it has not passed parliament and is already facing resistance from backbenchers in the governing Fianna Fáil party (RTÉ, Irish Examiner). If the next Lebanon mission is not a UN operation, Ireland cannot join under current law. That leaves the Security Council, including Russia and China with their vetoes, with indirect control over Irish crisis-management choices.

Germany is on the way out of UNIFIL. The Bundestag extended Germany's role one final time, with a wind-down phase running until mid-2027 (Deutschlandfunk). Any new armed deployment would need a fresh parliamentary mandate and a clear basis in international law. Berlin says it wants a "viable politico-military overall concept" before committing again (Bundesregierung). In plain terms: a defined task, a way out and a credible plan to protect the force.

Spain has about 650 soldiers in UNIFIL and knows the ground, but deployments require congressional authorisation (Infobae/EFE). Madrid has not yet made public an official position on the Franco-Italian proposal.

Where the force would operate from

Cyprus turns the Lebanon question into a practical test of Europe's ability to project force in the eastern Mediterranean. Nicosia has been upgrading military facilities under a defence partnership with France, positioning the island as a logistics base for regional operations (Cyprus Mail). Any European mission near Lebanon would probably depend on Cypriot infrastructure for supplies and evacuation.

That is where Turkey enters the equation. Operations staged from Cyprus touch Ankara's unresolved dispute over the island and its wider claims in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey is likely to view a European mission based there not simply as stabilisation in Lebanon, but as France and its allies entrenching a regional foothold.

What remains open

Seven UNIFIL peacekeepers have been killed since March. The Security Council has adopted a resolution on accountability for crimes against peacekeepers, saying attacks could amount to war crimes (UN Press). That record will sit behind every parliamentary vote on what follows.

Six months before UNIFIL's mandate expires, the France-Italy coalition still has to answer the questions summits cannot settle: who sends soldiers into southern Lebanon without a UN blue helmet, under whose legal authority, with what rules on the use of force, and who carries responsibility when the mission goes wrong? Europe has the outline of an ambition. It does not yet have a force, a mandate or a chain of responsibility.