The United Nation Security Council’s renewed mandate for UNIFIL, the force that is responsible for patrolling southern Lebanon, is “an important step” in preventing arms from reaching Hezbollah, although “there is much more to do” United States Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday in The Jerusalem Post.

UNIFIL, Haley recounted, is officially an “interim” force even though it has existed for more than 40 years. UNIFIL exists, in part, “to help the Lebanese government ensure there are no weapons outside of the government’s control in the area near Israel.” Unfortunately Haley wrote, UNIFIL “has been utterly failing at achieving this fundamental part of its mandate.” Worse, she continued, “some of its leaders do not even acknowledge that there’s a problem.”

Since its 2006 war with Israel, the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah has been “massively increasing its supply of rockets, missiles and fighters,” with an eye towards attacking Israel, which Hezbollah remains committed to destroy. Last month, Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah boasted that Hezbollah is 100 times more powerful than it was in 2006.

Because UNIFIL has been looking the other way, Hezbollah has been preparing for war with increased brazenness. Recently, Haley observed, Hezbollah reportedly invited more than 100 journalists to show off its arsenal—forbidden by UN resolutions—in southern Lebanon. (One journalist reported that “nowhere was there any evidence of the Lebanese state,” during the Hezbollah-led tour.)

“For example,” Haley wrote, “UNIFIL sometimes runs into roadblocks when it’s patrolling southern Lebanon.”

Men in plain clothes suddenly appear, blocking the UN trucks, stealing their equipment and pelting them with rocks until they turn around and leave. Everyone knows who these guys are. It’s Hezbollah. Hezbollah doesn’t want UNIFIL to see what’s beyond these roadblocks. And UNIFIL usually turns around and leaves without reporting on who stopped them and why. UNIFIL doesn’t know what Hezbollah is hiding, and the world doesn’t hear why the patrols are being turned back.

According to Haley, the new mandate will require that UNIFIL report such incidents so that when UNIFIL is “prevented from doing its job … we know about it.”

UNIFIL will also step up its patrols to prevent Hezbollah from adding to its deadly arsenal.

If Hezbollah interferes with UNIFIL’s work, according to the new mandate, “the Security Council will know about it. And if the UN refuses to act on this information, the world will know about it.”

“As the proxy for the outlaw Iranian regime,” Haley concluded, “Hezbollah will not give up its terrorist goals. But just as Hezbollah is stepping up its efforts, the United States, and now the United Nations, are stepping up our efforts against them.”

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