Armenian peacekeeping platoon leaves for Lebanon

An Armenian peacekeeping platoon left April 20 for Lebanon, the press office of the Armenian ministry of defense reported.

YEREVAN, April 21. /ARKA/. An Armenian peacekeeping platoon left April 20 for Lebanon, the press office of the Armenian ministry of defense reported.

The Armenian platoon has been carrying out their mission as part of Italian-led UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFL) since 2014. Armenian peacekeepers deployed in southern Lebanon are rotated every six months.

In 2021 February Armenia reduced the number of its peacekeeping troops in the NATO-led missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

“During the hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, we significantly cut the number of our peacekeeping contingent in Afghanistan from 121 to 58 troops and from 40 to 2 in Kosovo,” defense minister Vagharshak Harutyunyan said.

Regarding the humanitarian mission in Syria, he noted that Armenia will continue its mission there “because the Syrian people today are at the forefront of countering global terrorism, and it is our duty, especially that there is a thousands-strong Armenian diaspora in that country. "

'Our humanitarian mission, based on close cooperation with the Russian military, will certainly continue in Syria, and I must note that even after the Azerbaijani aggression against Artsakh in autumn last year, we did not suspend our peacekeeping activity in Syria,” he said.

Armenia has also one serviceman in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

In early February 2019, the Armenian Ministry of Defense announced the dispatch of the first group of 83 Armenian specialists to Syria, comprising humanitarian demining and medical personnel. -0-