EU countries contributing to UNIFIL see mission as ‘essential and fundamental’: Spain

The EU countries contributing to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL, say it is “essential and fundamental” and only the UN can decide whether to end it, Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said today after a video call with 15 of her counterparts, Reuters reports.

“All the countries that are part of it are firmly supporting the UNIFIL mission, our soldiers, our people who are there,” she said in a video statement sent to reporters.

EU countries, led by Italy, France and Spain, have thousands of troops in the 10,000-strong peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon. Israel has called on them to move north and abandon their positions.

UNIFIL has refused to withdraw from its positions in the border area in southern Lebanon, despite attacks that have wounded five of its members over the past two days. Last Saturday, 40 countries participating in the force strongly condemned the recent attacks against peacekeepers, stressing that “such acts must stop immediately and be properly investigated.”

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