UN peacekeepers in Lebanon wary of EU ban on Hizbollah military

As Irish peacekeepers browse market stalls in the south Lebanon town of Bint Jbeil, marching music associated with the militant group Hizbollah blares out. Above the market is a billboard depicting its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

“The decision was made [by the EU] to ban the military wing, and [here] there’s all these posters and banners,” said a soldier, reflecting on the contradictions of being a European here in Hizbollah’s heartlands.

Last month, the EU designated Hizbollah’s military wing a terrorist organisation, a mostly symbolic move unlikely to have much practical impact but one that further isolates the group internationally.

However, it has put Unifil, the multinational force which has helped keep an edgy peace on the Israeli-Lebanese border since 2006, in an awkward position, with some observers even fearing for the peacekeepers’ safety.

Almost a third of Unifil’s 10,000 troops are from European countries and most people living in the green hills they patrol are staunch supporters of the group.

“People are not going to accept you living among them and calling them terrorists,” a Hizbollah official told the FT shortly after the designation.

An editorial in a newspaper associated with the Lebanese political bloc which Hizbollah leads went further, saying the troops were no longer welcome. “From now on, Europe must realise that its soldiers serving under the UN flag in southern Lebanon are operating behind enemy lines,” thundered Al Akhbar editor Ibrahim al-Amin.

In Hizbollah’s eyes, the foreign troops in the country’s south that were bulked up after the 2006 war are under their protection. Though the peacekeepers are supposed to help the Lebanese army curb Hizbollah’s military activities in the south, their mandate to enforce this is limited. The force, meanwhile, and particularly the Europeans in it, provides Hizbollah with a buffer against future Israeli attacks.

The EU designation has tested Hizbollah’s relationship with Unifil. “We as locals in the south treated the Unifil like sacred guests – we protected them,” says Ali Ahmed Zawi, the pro-Hizbollah mayor of one south Lebanon village. “What do they do in return? Put us on the terrorist list.”

Since the EU decision, Unifil have been keen to stress that their troops are all here as representatives of the UN, not of individual countries, and officials say so far there has been no sign of a backlash. Locals smile and wave at the Irish troops as they walk through the market.

According to Tony McKenna, the commander of the Irish battalion, the pro-Hizbollah community leaders with whom his contingent regularly liaises have not reproached them yet for the designation. “We would have expected if there was going to be a backlash, mayors would not be meeting us, or if they were meeting us, giving us a dressing down – we haven’t encountered this yet,” says Lt Col McKenna.

Even the mayor plays down any suggestion of violence, insisting that Hizbollah will respond “politically” to the EU designation. “They put us on the terrorist list, but we’re going to treat [Unifil] well, because that’s our way,” he said.

European countries with troops in south Lebanon are likely to have received indirect assurances that their security would not be affected before taking the decision, which unlike the US’s blacklisting of Hizbollah, applies only to the group’s military wing, said Timur Goksel, of the American University of Beirut, a former Unifil spokesman. “Unifil’s presence serves Hizbollah in multiple ways, for their own security and for the benefit of their people economically,” he said.

However, even if Hizbollah as an organisation has decided not to turn up the heat on European peacekeepers, villagers angered by the decision might confront a Unifil convoy, Mr Goksel said. And extremist groups known to operate in the south might take advantage of the situation to launch an attack on Unifil, a Lebanese security official said.

The security environment in the south is murky, and two years ago, unknown assailants targeted French and Italian peacekeepers. More than a dozen were wounded by three roadside bombs.

For now, official optimism on the ground is tempered with caution. “Whether other events overtake us I don’t know,” said Lt Col McKenna. “But has it [the EU designation] impacted negatively on our operations, our posture on the ground? No.”