The U.N. Security Council remains at odds over the way the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon operates on the ground, with the United States backing Israel's demands for major changes.
At a closed council meeting Tuesday on the mission known as UNIFIL, whose mandate is up for renewal at the end of the month, U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft stressed the need for a new mandate.
"The U.S. has long reiterated publicly and privately that the status quo in Lebanon is unacceptable," Craft said in a statement. "Now is the time to empower UNIFIL, end the long complacency, and enable the mission to fully achieve what it was set out to accomplish."