A UN flag flies from an armoured vehicle of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon during a patrol near destroyed buildings in the village of Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon on August 27.

A United Nations Security Council decision to begin withdrawing UN peacekeepers from southern Lebanon at the end of next year has been criticized for putting an unrealistic timeline on the mission.

A unanimous resolution passed Thursday by the Security Council means the mission of the 10,000-member United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which was supposed to last until the Lebanese army is ready to assume sole responsibility for security in the region, will end on Dec. 31, 2026. The vote came less than a year after Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia fought a full-scale war that killed thousands of people a

See Full Page