{"id":19076,"date":"2018-10-19T09:23:16","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T09:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=19076"},"modified":"2018-10-19T09:23:16","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T09:23:16","slug":"turkey-extends-its-presence-under-unifil-in-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=19076","title":{"rendered":"Turkey extends its presence under UNIFIL in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nANKARA: A motion to deploy Turkish troops in Lebanon for a further year as part of the UN\u2019s interim force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, was ratified by the Turkish Parliament on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\nIt is the 11th time that there has been an extension of the time frame for Turkish soldiers supporting the UN peacekeeping forces. They will now be deployed to help the Lebanese government regain its authority and to provide security in the region until Aug. 31 next year.<\/p>\n

\nUNIFIL\u2019s total number of peacekeepers rose to 10,462 from 41 troop-contributing countries in August. Turkey, as the second largest army in NATO, has contributed 86 soldiers and one fast patrol boat.<\/p>\n

\nThis contribution helped the Turkish Army to boost cooperation and increased its level of recognition for the Lebanese.<\/p>\n

\nTurkish engineering construction company TURKCOY joined UNIFIL in October 2006 to support the mission with engineering construction expertise, including the construction of roads, building of prefabricated accommodation and improving the protection of several UNIFIL bases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nIt also donated generators, computers and other materials to municipalities and schools, and also renovated schools.<\/p>\n

\nAnkara withdrew its TURKCOY troops from UNIFIL after the kidnapping of two Turkish Airlines pilots in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\nLebanon currently faces many security threats, largely due to the ongoing crisis in Syria, rendering the mission of UNIFIL much more crucial for the country.<\/p>\n

\nSami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs (LISA) in Lebanon, said that Turkey\u2019s presence in UNIFIL is key for the security and stability of Lebanon, especially given the escalating tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. The two sides have been exchanging threats over the last weeks.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cRussia\u2019s deployment of the S-300 surface-to-air missile system in Syria after Syrian air defenses downed a Russian spy plane during an Israeli strike in September puts Lebanon further at risk because it could be now seen as an alternative arena for this war,\u201d Nader told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\nNader said that Turkey has always supported Lebanese sovereignty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nIt has also been critical of Hezbollah trying to control Lebanon to set up a state within a state, the director said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cTurkey being part of Astana peace process (aimed at ending the Syrian conflict) and remaining critical of Iran\u2019s moves in the region renders it a peace-broker by its engagement in UNIFIL. It could therefore extend the dynamic that is established in Astana to Lebanon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nSinan Hatahet, an expert on Lebanon-Turkey relations at Al Sharq Forum in Istanbul, said that Turkish involvement in UNIFIL has changed significantly since 2006.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nInternal dynamics<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\u201cAnkara was trying to play a major role in the Arab-Israeli conflict by mediating among Syria, Israel and Lebanon. But now the relationship between Turkey and Israel has deteriorated,\u201d he told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cTurkey\u2019s involvement in\u00a0 UNIFIL is within a larger context of Turkish objective of being present in the Levant. But I don\u2019t think that Turkey is engaging in Lebanese internal dynamics through this mission,\u201d Hatahet said.<\/p>\n

\nFatih Aldemir, a security consultant and a former major, said that Turkey\u2019s presence in UNIFIL has symbolic significance for the Lebanese as they tended to see Turkey as a model country and have developed friendly relations.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nMilitary assistance<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\u201cTurkey\u2019s contribution to the mission is seen as material and psychological support for the current aim of this interim force which is establishing a sort of buffer zone between Israel and prevent the potential threats coming from the sea,\u201d he told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\nFor the past three years, Turkey has also been providing foreign military assistance to Lebanon\u2019s security institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nOn Wednesday, during a meeting with Turkish Ambassador to Lebanon Hakan Cakil, Lebanese Defense Minister Yacoub Al-Sarraf thanked Ankara for its support.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANKARA: A motion to deploy Turkish troops in Lebanon for a further year as part of the UN\u2019s interim force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, was ratified by the Turkish Parliament on Tuesday. It is the 11th time that there has been an extension of the time frame for Turkish soldiers supporting the UN peacekeeping forces. They…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":19077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}