BEIRUT (TASS): The new Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Spanish General Aroldo Lazaro Saenz, will take up his duties in mid-February. This was reported to a TASS correspondent on Sunday by a source at the UNIFIL headquarters in An-Naqoura. According to him, the appointment was signed by UN Secretary General António Guterres.
“Saenz will replace his Italian counterpart, General Stefano del Cola, who led the peacekeeping operation on the Lebanese-Israeli bo-rder for the past four ye-ars,” the source said. He s-pecified that UNIFIL inc-luded 13,048 soldiers and officers from 46 countries. The Spaniards (632 people) are deployed in the eastern sector of South Lebanon, at the base in Marjayoun.
Since 2005, Saenz has already served three times with the Blue Helmets in southern Lebanon and served as Chief of Staff of UNIFIL, according to the source. The Spanish general previously participated in the peacekeeping operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, served at the headquarters of the ground NATO rapid reaction force in Valencia and the European forces in Florence.
The change in UNIFIL commander comes after an incident on 25 January in the village of Ramiya, where a group of local residents attacked a peacekeeping patrol while they were filming the border area with Israel. As a result, one of the servicemen was injured, two SUVs were damaged. The peacekeepers were rescued by Lebanese army soldiers who helped them leave the village.
On December 22 last ye-ar, the Blue Helmets patrol was attacked by residents of the village of Shakra. The attack came a day after UN Secretary-General Gut-erres visited UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura and ca-lled on all parties to respect the freedom of movement of the peacekeepers, which he said is critical to fulfilling their mandate.
On Friday, outgoing Italian General Stefano del Col met with Lebanese Defense Minister Maurice Slim. He said on Twitter that he demanded an investigation into two incidents in the border area and punish those responsible.
Incidents between UN peacekeepers monitoring the ceasefire on the Leba-nese-Israeli border and the population of the border villages occur, as a rule, w-hen UN patrols move without the escort of Lebanese military personnel. There are many supporters of the Shiite Hezbollah party among the inhabitants of the southern regions, who are distrustful of UNIFIL. The last conflict between Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli army took place in the summer of 2006.
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