New UNIFIL commander meets Aoun and foreign minister

BEIRUT — President Joseph Aoun met with the new commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Italian General Diodato Abagnara, on Monday in Baabda. Abagnara officially took the post on June 24, succeeding Spanish General Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz.

Aoun emphasized the importance of continued cooperation between the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL during the meeting, according to a post on the official presidency X account, also expressing his hope at seeing U.N. Resolution 1701 fulfilled. As for the ongoing occupation by Israeli troops of Lebanese territory along the Blue Line, Aoun and Abagnara spoke of the importance for their withdrawal to allowed the Lebanese Army's deployment all the way up to the internationally recognized U.N.-drawn border.

Abagnara then went to Bustros Palace for a "courtesy visit" with Foreign Minister Joe Rajji, according to the state-run National News Agency (NNA), where both parties reaffirmed the importance of UNIFIL's role in the South, amid the annual, oft-controversial debate that surrounds the renewal of UNIFIL's mandate, as well as a string of incidents during which UNIFIL troops and southern Lebanese residents have clashed over accusations from the latter that peacekeeping soldiers were moving into villages and private property without being accompanied by the Lebanese Army, a prerequisite for such operations.

Rajji confirmed that Lebanese authorities, however, remain committed to UNIFIL's renewal, although this year is poised to be more challenging, with some U.N. Security Council members, including the United States, appearing inclined to grant UNIFIL more prerogatives, even placing the mission under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, which allows for the use of force.

Last Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres received the official Lebanese request for the annual renewal of UNIFIL's mandate. It must now be submitted to the Security Council, which will have to settle the issue in August. The Lebanese letter, sent through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, relied on the same text adopted last year for mandate renewal, without any modification.