The agency’s DEI-tinged programming is one of several reasons why the Trump administration may block a move to renew its mandate, sources familiar told the Free Beacon
The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon is largely funded with U.S. taxpayer dollars, money it has used to pursue left-wing programs like “gender diversity” training and lessons on “gender mainstreaming in military operations,” as well as therapeutic yoga instruction. Those expenditures are drawing scrutiny as the Trump administration lobbies fellow U.N. Security Council members to vote against a French resolution renewing the agency’s mandate, sources familiar told the Washington Free Beacon.
The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), composed of thousands of troops from 46 nations, will need U.N. reauthorization at the end of August. Its force costs between $400 million and $500 million each year, with the United States shouldering roughly 30 percent of the burden. Private diplomatic concerns come amid public reports the Trump administration may allow UNIFIL’s mandate to lapse after last month’s rescissions package clawed back about $158 million from the agency.
Trump administration officials are closely assessing UNIFIL’s expenditures and activities before awarding fresh U.S. cash to the force, the sources told the Free Beacon. Those activities include a host of DEI initiatives UNIFIL has publicly promoted in recent months that run counter to President Donald Trump’s ongoing push to eradicate taxpayer spending on progressive ideological projects.
UNIFIL in July of this year, for instance, initiated a training session on “gender mainstreaming in military operations” alongside the agency’s “gender unit” after a request from the Lebanese Army. But the agency’s focus on gender issues did not begin with that training session.
The agency employs a “Military Gender Advisor” who discussed hiding in a bunker in October 2024 when Israel retaliated against Hezbollah, the terrorist organization UNIFIL is meant to prevent from attacking Israel, in a videotaped interview. Its navy boasts a “Gender Task Force,” founded in 2022 “to boost women’s role in peacekeeping.” And UNIFIL maintains “gender-sensitive accommodations” at its bases, featuring its facilities online amid a 2023 push “for more diverse and efficient operations.”
UNIFIL member Major Rajinish Pandey said in a May 2023 video diary that his “job is to maintain gender diversity and conduct all civic activities planned in the area of responsibility.” In another May 2023 X post, UNIFIL touted Lt. Cmdr. Suzanne van Opstal, a “Military Gender Adviser at @UNIFIL_” whose job it was to emphasize “gender perspectives in military ops.” A similar post from March 2024 explained how “more gender-balanced, diverse and inclusive security institutions is vital to promoting peaceful and inclusive societies.”
UNIFIL’s mission was widely deemed a failure after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack drew Hezbollah into a prolonged conflict on Israel’s northern border that displaced around 60,000 civilians. The Jewish state, along with the United States, is currently persuading U.N. Security Council members to vote against UNIFIL’s reauthorization or to substantially alter its mission, according to the Jerusalem Post.
French officials have taken the lead in pushing a U.N. Security Council resolution to extend the peacekeeping force’s presence for at least another year, and the French government is also responsible for some of the ideological projects on which UNIFIL has worked. The country pledged in May of this year to “conduct a seminar on the environmental impact on missions and hold a Gender Advisor Course in French” for UNIFIL troops.
A Western diplomat currently lobbying the Trump administration to veto France’s Security Council resolution reauthorizing UNIFIL’s mandate told the Free Beacon the agency has not come close to succeeding in its aims.
“The key question before the Trump Administration is, ‘Has the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon fulfilled its mission?'” the diplomat said. “A resounding body of evidence shows in fact, Hezbollah grew increasingly stronger and better armed, and UNIFIL was entirely ineffective at disarming Hezbollah. Put simply, the U.N. peace keeping mission failed, and renewing the mandate would be throwing good money after bad.”
Some of the “bad” money to which the diplomat referred includes the funding UNIFIL headquarters spent earlier this month on a “Resilience through Yoga” program that featured “yoga asanas, meditation & Ayurveda to boost peacekeepers’ physical stamina, mental focus & emotional well-being.”
🧘♂️ Resilience through Yoga 🇮🇳🤝🇱🇧
INDBATT & IMTC organised a session at UNIFIL HQ, Naqoura, featuring yoga asanas, meditation & Ayurveda to boost peacekeepers’ physical stamina, mental focus & emotional well-being. 🌿#UNIFIL #Peacekeepers #Yoga@adgpi pic.twitter.com/OZq6ca6ZGD— Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (@CUNPKIndia) August 12, 2025
For a senior congressional staffer briefed on the efforts to renew UNIFIL’s mandate, the agency’s work defies the entirety of the Trump administration’s foreign policy aims.
“This campaign to renew UNIFIL is a last ditch effort by the French government and their supporters in the State Department ‘Deep State,'” a senior congressional staffer briefed on the efforts to renew UNIFIL’s mandate told the Free Beacon. “They’re trying to undo President Trump’s DOGE-ing of foreign assistance, his global campaign to dismantle wokeness and DEI, and his crackdown against Iranian terrorists.”
UNIFIL’s recent bid to integrate Chinese forces along Israel’s northern border has also driven opposition to renewing the agency’s mandate. Chen Chuandong, China’s ambassador to Lebanon, announced earlier this week he was “briefed by Major General Diodato Abagnara, Head of Mission and Commander of UNIFIL of its operation.” During that sit down, Chuandong “pledged China’s continued support” to the agency.
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