Over the last decade, Congressman Kirk emerged as a leading voice for accountability at the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In 2001, when UNIFIL refused to turn over a film showing Hezbollah terrorists kidnapping three IDF soldiers, Congressman Kirk took the lead to demand action.

Congressman Kirk introduced H.Res. 191, “expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United Nations should immediately transfer to the Israeli Government an unedited and uncensored videotape that contains images which could provide material evidence for the investigation into the incident on October 7, 2000, when Hezbollah forces abducted 3 Israeli Defense Force soldiers, Adi Avitan, Binyamin Avraham, and Omar Souad.”

The House passed H.Res. 191 on July 30, 2001 – the congressman’s first House-passed resolution.

Following the Lebanon War of 2006, Congressman Kirk authored a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, signed by more than 100 other members of Congress, urging the Bush Administration to pressure UNIFIL to halt Iranian arms shipments across the Syrian-Lebanese border.

In December 2009, Congressman Kirk led on this issue once again. Authoring a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he and 30 other members of the House expressed their continued concern over Iranian arm shipments to Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon.