United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Security Council Resolution 425, adopted on 19 March 1978, five days after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the context of

Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon The Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon was a multi-sided armed conflict initiated by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) against Israel in 1968 and against Lebanese Front, Lebanese Christian militias in the mid-1970s. PLO's goal ...

and the

Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...

, called on

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

to withdraw immediately its forces from

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

and established the

United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (; ), or UNIFIL (; ) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission established on 19 March 1978 by United Nations Security Council Resolutions United Nations Security Council Resolution 425, 425 and Unit ...

(UNIFIL). It was adopted by 12 votes to none;

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

abstained, and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

did not participate.

Background

On 11 March 1978,

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...

(PLO) operatives, led by Dalal Mugrabi, carried out the Coastal Road massacre within Israel which resulted in the deaths of 37 Israelis, including 13 children, and 76 wounded. In response, Israeli forces invaded southern Lebanon from which the PLO operated regularly during the 1970s. Starting on the night of 14–15 March and culminating a few days later,

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

(IDF) troops occupied the entire southern part of the country except for the city of Tyre and its surrounding area. This operation is known in Israel as

Operation Litani The 1978 South Lebanon conflict, also known as the First Israeli invasion of Lebanon and codenamed Operation Litani by Israel, began when Israel invaded southern Lebanon up to the Litani River in March 1978. It was in response to the Coas ...

, the stated objective of which was to clear out PLO bases in Lebanon south of the

Litani River The Litani River (), the classical Leontes (), is an important water resource in southern Lebanon. The river rises in the fertile Beqaa Valley, west of Baalbek, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea north of Tyre. Exceeding in length, the ...

, in order to better secure northern Israel and to support the Christian Lebanese militias in the course of the

- most notably the

Free Lebanon Army The South Lebanon Army or South Lebanese Army (SLA; , ), also known as the Lahad Army () or as the De Facto Forces (DFF), was a Christian-dominated militia in Lebanon. It was founded by Lebanese military officer Saad Haddad in 1977, amidst th ...

. On 15 March 1978 the

Lebanese government Lebanon is a Parliamentary republic, parliamentary Democracy, democratic republic within the overall framework of Confessionalism (politics), confessionalism, a form of consociationalism in which the highest offices are proportionately reserv ...

submitted a strong protest to the

United Nations Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

against the Israeli invasion, stating that it had no connection with the Palestinian operation. On 19 March 1978 the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 425, in which it called upon Israel to cease immediately its military action and withdraw its forces from Lebanese territory. It also established the

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (; ), or UNIFIL (; ) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission established on 19 March 1978 by United Nations Security Council Resolutions United Nations Security Council Resolution 425, 425 and Unit ...

(UNIFIL), the objective of which was to bring about and confirm withdrawal of Israeli forces, restore international peace and security, and to help the Lebanese Government restore its effective authority in southern Lebanon.

The resolution text

Implementation

The first

UNIFIL The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (; ), or UNIFIL (; ) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission established on 19 March 1978 by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 425 and 426, and several further resolutions in 2006 to con ...

troops arrived in Lebanon on 23 March 1978, just four days after the resolution was passed, and Israel withdrew its forces by June 1978. Israel maintained a presence through its proxy

South Lebanon Army The South Lebanon Army or South Lebanese Army (SLA; , ), also known as the Lahad Army () or as the De Facto Forces (DFF), was a Christianity in Lebanon, Christian-dominated militia in Lebanon. It was founded by Lebanese military officer Saad H ...

Aftermath

PLO attacks from south Lebanon continued, and Israel launched a larger-scale invasion in June 1982 in which Israeli and Lebanese Christian forces occupied the Lebanese capital city of

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

in the

1982 Lebanon War The 1982 Lebanon War, also called the Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization ...

. In the aftermath of the IDF’s retreat south Israel maintained a security zone inside Lebanon. In May 2000, Israel withdrew its troops from

southern Lebanon Southern Lebanon () is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa districts, the southernmost distr ...

. Before the withdrawal, opposition voices inside Israel pressured the government to withdraw, as they saw no valid reason to stay there and sustain Lebanese attacks. BlueLine

The UN Secretary-General concluded that, as of 16 June 2000, Israel had indeed withdrawn its forces from Lebanon, in accordance with resolution 425 (1978). The border recognized by the UN is known as the " Blue Line". Some Lebanese parties (most notably Iranian proxy

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

), however, claim that Israel is still keeping Lebanese land under its occupation, mainly in

Shebaa Farms The Shebaa Farms, also spelled Sheba'a Farms (, '; ''Havot Sheba‘a),'' also known as Mount Dov (), is a strip of land on the Lebanese–Syrian border that is currently occupied by Israel. Lebanon claims the Shebaa Farms as its own territory ...

. Israel and the UN concur that Shebaa Farms is part of the Golan (annexed in Israel’s view, occupied in eyes of UN), and therefore it is not included under resolution 425. Since the adoption of the Resolution and Israel’s withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, there have been a number of cross-border incidents. As at August 2021, Lebanon had not extended effective control over southern Lebanon, as it had been called upon since 1978, and repeated by UN Resolution 1391 of 2002, UN Resolution 1496 of 2003 and UN Resolution 1701 after the second Lebanese War in 2006. Hezbollah has periodically attacked Israel from Lebanon. Israel has lodged multiple complaints regarding Lebanon's failure to take control of southern Lebanon.

References

External links