NEW YORK, AUGUST 10 – Ahead of the peacekeeping mission’s mandate renewal at the end of the month, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the Head of UN Peacekeeping, briefed the Security Council this morning in closed consultations on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
“I think we’ve expressed our concern at what we’ve seen across the Blue Line recently”, the UN Spokeperson Stephane Dujarric said today: “I think it is very important that all the parties avail themselves of the coordination mechanism that UNIFIL offers. We often talk about this tripartite mechanism between the Israeli Defense Forces, the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL, and it’s a mechanism designed to lower tensions”.
Dujarric added that “the immediate imperative” for UNIFIL has been to do whatever it can to calm the situation and restore a cessation of hostilities. Earlier in August the Blue Helmets witnessed rockets launches from north of UNIFIL Area of Operations towards Israel and return fire of dozens of shells from Israel.
“During my interaction with officials in both countries (the Lebanese Armed Forces and Israeli’s Defense Forces) over the past hours, I have urged maximum restraint. The escalation of the past two days must stop”, General Stefano Del Col, Head of Mission and Force Commander, said on Twitter on August 6, a day after having chaired a new Tripartite meeting at a UN position in Ras Al Naqoura.
Since the end of the 2006 war in south Lebanon, regular Tripartite meetings have been held under UNIFIL’s auspices as an essential conflict-management and confidence-building mechanism. (@OnuItalia)
