Madrid, December 10: A Spanish general will next month take charge of the 12,000-strong United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the defence ministry said Wednesday.
General Alberto Asarta Cuevas was nominated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, it said in a statement. He will replace Italy’s Claudio Graziano who has held the post for the past three years.
“It is expected that General Asarta will assume his post on January 28,” the statement said.
UNIFIL now has 12,341 soldiers from 29 nations. It was set up in 1978 to monitor the border between Israel and southern Lebanon and considerably beefed up in the wake of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Spain has 1,100 soldiers in the force, making it the fourth largest UNIFIL troop contingent. France is the largest single contributor.
Spain will hold the rotating presidency of the European Union during the first half of 2010, and political analysts say Madrid is keen to take control of UNIFIL in order to raise its Middle East profile during this time.
—Agencies