{"id":35195,"date":"2019-03-13T08:23:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T08:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=35195"},"modified":"2019-03-13T08:23:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T08:23:18","slug":"egypt-mourns-scientists-killed-in-ethiopian-crash-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=35195","title":{"rendered":"Egypt mourns scientists killed in Ethiopian crash"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT:\u00a0A top UN peacekeeping official on Tuesday moved to scale down the operations of a naval security task force in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\nUN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix held talks with Lebanese officials about the gradual reduction of tasks being carried out by the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force (MTF).<\/p>\n

\nDuring a meeting, the UN official asked Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab to \u201creinforce the presence of the Lebanese army in the south and the capabilities of the Lebanese navy\u201d in order to cut the MTF\u2019s security responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\nLacroix also addressed Lebanese concerns over sensitive maritime border claims with Israel.<\/p>\n

\nArab News has learned that UNIFIL is under pressure to reduce its spending in the country.<\/p>\n

\nThe MTF was the first force of its kind in the history of UN peacekeeping missions when it was established in October 2006 at the request of the Lebanese government within the framework of UN Security Council resolution 1701 (aimed at resolving the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict).<\/p>\n

\nThe aim of the task force has been to support the Lebanese navy in securing its coastline and territorial waters and help prevent unauthorized entry of arms or related materials by sea into Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\nAfter meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun and Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, in Beirut, Lacroix stressed \u201cthe importance of cooperation between the Lebanese authorities and the UN forces, especially since we have been in southern Lebanon for decades. This has contributed to calming the situation despite some problems that we and the Lebanese authorities jointly deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe UN official added: \u201cWe expressed our pleasure to continue this cooperation under the new government, which represents an opportunity to give impetus to important projects for Lebanon by strengthening the presence of the army in the areas where UNIFIL operates and to gradually work to strengthen the Lebanese maritime capabilities, which would allow for a transitional phase of tasks in this area between UNIFIL and the army.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAoun told Lacroix that Lebanon \u201cstill faces Israeli opposition to the demarcation of the maritime border in the exclusive economic zone, despite suggestions made in this direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nBou Saab said: \u201cThe question of borders is sensitive today because the parties concerned are trying to determine the final shape of the maritime border and the situation requires further discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nLacroix also listened to complaints from Lebanese officials about continued Israeli violations of UN resolution 1701.<\/p>\n

\nSince being set up, the MTF has been operating along the entire Lebanese coast, extending 80 km westward in the Mediterranean Sea. It conducts ongoing surveillance of commercial traffic, particularly along the corridors of access to the three main Lebanese ports of Beirut, Tripoli and Sidon.<\/p>\n

\nBut a UN source told Arab News that following a strategy review last year UNIFIL had been ordered to cut its operational costs. The source said UNIFIL had a budget of around $500 million which it spent on 11,500 soldiers and about 865 civilian staff.<\/p>\n

\nIn an attempt to reduce expenditure, UNIFIL slashed the number of flights between its Lebanese headquarters in Naqoura and Beirut, but the source said the savings were not enough and the UN had requested more cutbacks in light of a decline in US funding for the organization.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT:\u00a0A top UN peacekeeping official on Tuesday moved to scale down the operations of a naval security task force in Lebanon. UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix held talks with Lebanese officials about the gradual reduction of tasks being carried out by the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force (MTF). During a meeting, the UN official…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35195","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=35195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35195\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}