United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, on Wednesday, urged the United Nations Security Council to begin negotiations on the future of peacekeeping forces deployed in Lebanon, at a time when Beirut seeks to extend its mandate scheduled to expire at the end of this year, according to what was reported by Reuters news agency.
The United Nations peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, has been deployed in southern Lebanon since 1978, but the Security Council ordered the mission last year to begin withdrawing at the end of 2026.
Since the outbreak of a new war in March between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah group, the Lebanese government has been mobilizing efforts to extend UNIFIL’s mandate, noting its role in monitoring hostilities and facilitating the delivery of aid to villages located in areas occupied by Israel.
This year, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented proposals for the continued presence of UN forces in Lebanon, but Lacroix told Reuters in Beirut that no action has been taken so far.
He added: “These proposals are presented to the Security Council table. “There have been no movements in the Security Council yet, but I believe that negotiations will begin... soon and in earnest.”
He continued: “I think it is better to make a decision soon rather than postpone it, right? Because that will also show us the future vision, certainly from a more limited point of view related to our planning.”
The head of the National Authority for Transitional Justice in Syria, Abdel Basset Al-Weis, denied what some websites reported about the completion of the transitional justice law and its submission to the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, pointing out that “the project is still under discussion and discussion, and has not reached its final form.”
Al-Wais explained to Asharq Al-Awsat that the authority is adopting “a dynamic path in developing the drafts of the proposed transitional justice law, through continuous consultative meetings with the relevant institutions that intersect with it, such as the Ministries of Interior and Justice and the (Missing Persons Authority), with the aim of updating and renewing its provisions, before officially referring it to the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic and the People’s Assembly.”
Al-Wais's statements came after talk circulated about the commission's completion of the draft transitional justice law and its arrival in Parliament, after the reactions that the latest draft draft sparked within human rights circles, which placed its provisions under the microscope of analysis, opening the doors of discussion and warning of the presence of structural gaps that affect the essence of the law.
Criticisms focused on the “generality of the texts,” especially related to the paths of “institutional reform and revealing the truth,” included in the previous drafts, in addition to preserving national memory, the scope of prosecuting serious violations, in addition to accountability mechanisms and preventing impunity and limiting them to the period from 1970 until the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in 2024, the independence of the competent judicial bodies, and the overlapping of provisions related to political isolation.
The researcher in the field of international criminal law, Al-Muatasem Al-Kilani, for his part, believes that maintaining basic concepts such as revealing the truth and institutional reform, in general terms without specifying their legal content and implementation mechanisms, constitutes a threat to the effectiveness of the law and its ability to achieve its goals. “The problem does not lie in the use of these concepts, but rather in the absence of clear legal obligations resulting from them, leaving their interpretation and application to the discretionary authority,” considering that the fundamental challenge facing any comprehensive law for transitional justice in Syria is not only the recognition of past violations, but rather the recognition of past violations. In building a legal system capable of preventing their recurrence, ensuring that all those responsible for crimes are held accountable in accordance with the law, restoring dignity to victims, and restoring confidence in public institutions.
Al-Kilani explains that “general texts do not provide adequate protection for victims, and do not prevent the abuse of power. Therefore, general principles must be transformed into enforceable and justiciable rights, specific obligations on institutions, and clear procedures for accountability and oversight.”
Reform and political isolation
Al-Kilani believes that revealing the truth is not just collecting testimonies or preparing documentary reports. Rather, it is a right for victims, their families, and society to know the facts related to grave violations, the circumstances of their commission, the parties responsible for them, and the fate of the missing and forcibly disappeared. If the law does not include clear guarantees for access to official documents and archives, protecting witnesses, obliging institutions to cooperate, and determining the relationship between the results of truth commissions and judicial procedures, “revealing the truth may turn into a symbolic documentation process that does not produce actual legal effects.”
As for institutional reform, “leaving (the term) without a definition and specific criteria may reproduce institutions that contributed to committing violations, or use reform as a means of political and administrative exclusion. Therefore, reform should be based on an individual assessment of responsibilities, transparent standards of integrity and efficiency, and guarantees of objection and appeal, while subjecting security, military, and judicial institutions to independent legal oversight.”
In his speech, Al-Kilani relies on the paragraphs that referred in the text of the draft to Article 20 of the procedures and consequences of examining records and Articles 19, 18 and 17, for the purpose of evaluation and ensuring non-recurrence, which stipulates the establishment of a tripartite fact-finding committee to examine the security or administrative apparatus, without granting the right of appeal or review to the employee who is removed or expelled, in addition to Articles 21 and 22, the entrance to political isolation, which grants the fact-finding committee broad powers and imposes penalties without the presence of a judicial document.
Before and after the fall of the regime
In addition to these provisions, the time period specified for the period of the rule of the Assad regime, and its exclusive linking to a specific political or security party, raised a human rights problem related to the principle of equality before the law, and the right of all victims to access justice and redress.
According to the researcher, this does not mean diminishing the extent of the violations committed by the previous regime, but rather establishing the principle of justice above all, according to a clear legal standard based on the nature of the violation, its seriousness, and individual responsibility for committing it. Therefore, the scope of accountability must expand to include all violations, including those that may have been committed after the fall of the previous regime.
He explains that addressing this problem legislatively is through adopting a comprehensive definition of grave violations, and defining clear terms of reference for investigation and prosecution, so that the time frame of transitional justice does not disrupt the jurisdiction of the judiciary in crimes occurring outside it, and this must be done while respecting the principle of criminal legality, the non-retroactivity of criminalization and punishment, and the guarantees of a fair trial.
In turn, the head of the “National Authority for Transitional Justice” in Syria, Abdel Basset Al-Wais, confirms that “the project paper is still alive and subject to amendment, and a lot of development and updating has taken place on it. Even the latest draft that was presented recently, discussions about its provisions and improvements are still continuing.”
Despite the increasing criticism regarding the procrastination in legislating a comprehensive transitional justice law in Syria, human rights activists and legal experts find that the delay in issuing the law is not a real danger, as much as the existence of a law that establishes partial justice, establishes institutions that lack independence, or grants victims symbolic recognition without enforceable rights is.
The Israeli security establishment entered into an indirect confrontation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing the “Hill Youth” settlement group in the West Bank of being the nucleus of a “solid and brutal organization waging a pre-emptive war to expel the Palestinians from the West Bank.”
A security source told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Wednesday, “The matter is not about a handful. These are not a handful; Whoever says that simply does not want to solve the problem. We are talking about a solid core that includes between 300 and 500 people, similar to ferocious beasts.”
The security source's statement came in a clear response to previous statements by Netanyahu in which he said that attacks by what he described as "a handful of minor hooligans in the West Bank" were being exaggerated, compared to what he said were "murderous attacks launched by Palestinians."
Contrary to what Netanyahu said, the security establishment confirms that Palestinian attacks are declining significantly, but national crime (i.e. settler attacks on Palestinians) is moving in an “opposite, dangerous, increasing and continuing” direction.
According to data from the security establishment, published by Yedioth Ahronoth, settler violence is on a noticeable rise, and while the number of attacks last year reached about 800 attacks, the number this year, until early October, reached 950 attacks, a number very close to the peak in 2023, which witnessed the war, as 980 incidents were recorded throughout the year.
The security establishment says that a sharp turning point began on February 28, with the launch of the US-Israeli military operation “Lion’s Roar” against Iran, where another jump was recorded in the number of incidents and their severity.
The security source said: “These are criminals in every sense of the word. They burn homes to kill their residents. If in the past they justified their actions as a response to attacks based on the principle of “paying the price,” the method has completely changed today, as these are pre-planned operations aimed at carrying out deportations.
The source confirmed that the settlers are receiving political support. He added, “There are members of the Knesset and ministers who come to visit them in illegal areas and provide them with full support.”
Settlers have escalated their attacks in the West Bank in recent years, and since October 2023, the attacks have begun to take a bloody turn, and include carrying out large, almost daily attacks on areas in the West Bank, which also include areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority, such as “A” and “B,” during which Palestinians were killed, homes, places of worship, and mosques were burned, property, vehicles, and lands were vandalized, livestock were killed, others were stolen, and lands and homes were seized.
On Wednesday, settlers attacked several areas in the West Bank, and burned a mosque and a vehicle in the village of Mikhmas, northeast of occupied Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Governorate reported that colonists stormed the village after midnight last night, and set fire to a mosque and an olive tree near it, in addition to burning a vehicle completely.
Settlers also attacked farmers from the towns of Al-Fandqumiya, Jaba and Wasila Al-Dhahr, south of Jenin, and bulldozed lands in the towns of Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, and Burin, south of it.
Settlers also attacked olive pickers in the town of Turmus Aya, north of Ramallah, damaged irrigation networks and agricultural lines, and stole valves and water meters belonging to farmers in the northern Yarza community, east of Tubas. They attacked farmers in the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan, west of Salfit, and sprayed them with pepper gas, while preventing farmers from picking olives on the lands of Beit Furik.
The head of the Palestinian National Council, Rawhi Fattouh, said that the settlers’ burning of a mosque and a vehicle in the village of Mikhmas, east of Ramallah, constitutes a brutal act and a dangerous escalation in settler terrorism. He holds international laxity and the failure to take practical measures to force the right-wing colonial government to stop the colonialist attacks responsible for the continuation of these crimes.
Fattouh added that the occupation government continues to provide support and protection to settler gangs. Settlers' attacks continue in the West Bank despite army commanders' pledges to confront them, and repeated warnings that their attacks will eventually ignite the West Bank.
