French President Emmanuel Macron is advancing plans for a new European military presence in Lebanon as France confronts intensifying political and economic instability at home. The proposal is also facing resistance from a major European partner, while Washington weighs an alternative arrangement that may rely on civilian personnel rather than troops.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had spoken with Macron about the future of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, indicating that a successor monitoring system might be civilian-led.
“It doesn’t have to be a military mission. It could be a civilian mission,” Rubio said in remarks published Tuesday.
Rubio said the administration is looking for a credible way to verify an arrangement requiring Israeli forces to leave designated areas, the Lebanese Armed Forces to take control and the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah to be prevented from re-establishing its presence.
Soldiers with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon attend a ceremony marking the International Day of U.N. Peacekeepers in Naqoura, Lebanon, on May 29, 2025. (Ali Hashisho/Xinhua via Getty Images)
He said France could make a useful contribution, but stressed that any new framework would need the approval of both Lebanon and Israel.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz likewise said Washington does not intend to preserve UNIFIL in its current form.
“UNIFIL in its current form will not continue, and it must not continue — we are working with our international partners to draw down the mission and ensure that the Lebanese people can choose their own future and to ensure that the Lebanese Armed Forces can secure the nation’s future,” Waltz told News Media.
French President Emmanuel Macron reviews troops during a visit to the nuclear submarine navy base at Ile Longue in Crozon, France, on March 2, 2026. (Yoan Valat /Pool via Reuters)
Paris is envisioning a multinational force that could include thousands of European troops tasked with supporting the Lebanese army as UNIFIL prepares to conclude its nearly 50-year mission. The force’s size, mandate and list of participating nations have not been finalized.
Italy, which previously joined France in advocating for an international coalition after UNIFIL’s departure, does not support placing Italian troops under the plan currently being promoted by Paris, according to three people familiar with the discussions who spoke to News Media.
The proposal comes as Macron faces mounting pressure inside France, where large demonstrations have focused on the rising cost of living, wages and declining public services.
The unrest has made it more difficult for the government to advance its 2027 budget. Rising debt and deep political divisions have further narrowed its options, Reuters reported Nov. 5.
Those domestic pressures raise questions about how much money and military capacity Paris can devote to another overseas operation, particularly if European partners do not firmly support the plan.
Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, senior envoy for Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said replacing UNIFIL with another international military force could reproduce the weaknesses of the existing mission.
“UNIFIL’s mandate should end as scheduled. Hezbollah built up its military presence in southern Lebanon with international peacekeepers already on the ground. Keeping troops there under a new mandate would repeat an approach that failed to prevent that buildup. The basis for what comes next should be the U.S.-brokered agreement Israel and Lebanon reached in June. France can help both sides put it into practice and move further,” Rodan-Benzaquen told News Media.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sits with France’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot during the G7 foreign ministers summit at the Quai d’Orsay in Paris, where they discussed support for Ukraine and efforts to stabilize the Middle East, on Nov. 9, 2026. (Christophe Petit Tesson / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
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Determining who would carry out inspections has already become a contentious issue.
The United States and Israel had previously objected to France serving as a third-party verifier of Hezbollah’s disarmament, according to an Aug. 7 Reuters report that cited Lebanese officials and foreign diplomats. A Lebanese official also told Reuters that Beirut had rejected an earlier plan involving private security firms.
The obstacles are not limited to disagreements among potential international partners.
A Congressional Research Service assessment updated November 9 said Hezbollah continues to reject disarmament, while Israeli forces still hold positions in southern Lebanon.
A protester holds a rock while a kiosk burns during a demonstration near Place de la République in Paris on Oct. 17, 2026, as the Gilets Jaunes joined students for a weekend of action. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
A U.S.-brokered framework reached in June tied a phased Israeli withdrawal to verified disarmament by armed groups and the deployment of Lebanese forces. Implementation, however, has stalled outside the initial pilot areas, and talks held in October ended without an agreement.
Rodan-Benzaquen said Paris should concentrate on using its diplomatic influence to support Beirut’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah instead of pledging additional troops.
“France’s greatest leverage is notably in Beirut. The Lebanese cabinet has already outlawed Hezbollah’s military activity. Paris should work with the Lebanese government to press disarming Hezbollah. Israel needs credible evidence that Hezbollah cannot return to an area its troops are eventually leaving. Beirut needs confidence that once its army secures that area, the agreed Israeli withdrawal will eventually follow. That is where French diplomacy can make a difference.”
The dispute follows the August 2025 Security Council resolution that extended UNIFIL’s mandate for a final time through Dec. 31, 2026, while authorizing an orderly withdrawal during the following year.
Washington supported ending the mission because of longstanding concerns that it had failed to stop Hezbollah from maintaining a military presence in southern Lebanon. France, however, has cautioned that ending UNIFIL could create a security vacuum.
Vehicles belonging to the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon travel along the main road toward the southern town of Naqura, near the Israeli border, on Oct. 27, 2022. (Photo by Mahmoud Zayyat/ AFP/Getty Images)
In an earlier Security Council statement, France’s U.N. mission said: “France will support UNIFIL until the expiration of its mandate. It will contribute to defining the future international engagement in Lebanon, in support of its sovereignty and the implementation of resolution 1701.”
U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said Secretary-General António Guterres presented three possible models for a future U.N. presence in June, but the Security Council has not formally chosen among them.
Dujarric added that the United Nations was aware of discussions concerning a possible non-U.N. military presence in southern Lebanon, but was not directly participating in those talks.
As UNIFIL’s mandate nears its expiration, France must secure agreement on both the nations willing to provide personnel and the powers those forces would have in a country where Hezbollah remains armed and Israeli troops have not completely withdrawn.
A member of Spain’s UNIFIL peacekeeping contingent stands before destroyed buildings during a patrol in Borj El Mlouk, a southern Lebanese village near the Israeli border, on Jan. 7, 2025. (ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Getty Images)
The Italian government did not respond to News Media’s request for comment. Requests for comment were also sent to the State Department and Spanish and Lebanese officials.