The Turkish parliament has extended its troops’ participation in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon by a year, state news agency Anadolu reported on Wednesday.
Turkey has contributed to UNIFIL since 2006 and currently has 97 troops deployed in Lebanon, where the Israeli army is locked in conflict with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
“Turkey has undertaken an important task in the efficient execution of peacekeeping operations thanks to its contributions to UNIFIL,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
In a motion submitting the proposal to renew Turkey’s participation to parliament, Erdogan argued that “pursuing our contribution is important”.
In mid-October, Erdogan hit out at the UN for failing to prevent Israel from firing at its peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.
“The image of the UN which cannot protect its own personnel is shameful and worrying,” Erdogan, a fierce critic of Israel, then said in a televised address.
“Can you believe it? The Israeli tanks penetrate into the UNIFIL zone, attack peacekeeping soldiers, even wounding some of them, but the UN Security Council decides to just watch all this criminality from its stands — that’s what we call powerlessness.”
The UN condemned the attacks with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying they “may constitute a war crime”.
UNIFIL, a mission of about 9,500 troops of various nationalities created following Israel’s 1978 invasion of Lebanon, has refused to leave its positions.
The peacekeeping force has accused the Israeli military of deliberately firing on its positions.
