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November 20, 2024 | 08:46 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Argentina has informed the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon that they are withdrawing three of its officers, as confirmed by UNIFIL spokesperson on Tuesday, November 19, 2024.
"True. Argentina has requested its officers to return," said Andrea Tenenti, UNIFIL spokesperson, responding to a newspaper report. He refused to comment on the reasons for their departure, and referred the question to the Argentine government.
"There are three Argentine officers in UNIFIL. So, our operational capacity remains unchanged," said Tenenti, as quoted by Anadolu Agency.
Emphasizing that all other countries have stated their commitment to stay, he said: "No other country has requested to withdraw their peacekeeping forces from UNIFIL."
Regarding their reasons for leaving, the spokesperson said that the country did not disclose the reasons for their departure in their withdrawal request.
Milei brings Argentina closer to the US and Israel
Argentina under the leadership of Javier Milei, according to an analysis by Arab News, has undergone a series of dramatic changes in foreign policy.
Milei, a vocal climate change skeptic, suddenly recalled Argentina's negotiators from a UN climate meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, raising concerns that the radical economist might mimic former US President Donald Trump who withdrew from the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Arab News mentioned that Milei not only changed his foreign policy in line with the United States and Israel, his government also took a marginalized position on the global stage that contradicts the liberal and rule-based international order.
"This is a major breakthrough with Argentina's long-standing foreign policy orientation to make Argentina a part integrated with the countries of the South," said Richard Sanders, a global researcher at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and former US Department of State official. "This is clearly a significant change in how Argentina relates internationally."
"Argentina chooses to stand alone, against all of mankind," wrote former President Mauricio Macri's conservative party, Milei government ally, on social media platform X on Friday.
Serving almost a year as president, this former Argentine TV personality remains unpredictable and attracts global attention due to his resemblance to Trump. Milei became the first foreign leader to meet with Trump since the US election, albeit informally, on Thursday night at the incoming president's private club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
In a congratulatory phone call with Trump earlier this week, Milei's spokesperson reported that Trump told the Argentinian leader: "You are my favorite president." Trump has not confirmed the claim.
The Argentine presidency proudly released a series of photos from Mar-a-Lago on Friday featuring Milei in a sharp suit standing smilingly alongside Trump and technology billionaire Elon Musk, with whom Milei is also openly building a rapport over their shared disdain for 'wokeness', gender issues, and socialism.
Experts say Milei hopes to leverage his friendship with Trump to help crisis-hit Argentina get much-needed financial injections from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where Argentina owes over 44 billion US dollars. The US is the largest shareholder in the IMF.
Israel has been involved in cross-border conflict with Lebanon, launching an airstrike campaign against what it claims to be targets of the Hezbollah group in late September.
More than 3,500 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Lebanon, with nearly 15,000 people injured and over a million displaced since last October, according to Lebanon health authorities.
Tel Aviv escalated the conflict by launching a ground assault into southern Lebanon on October 1st this year.
Editor's Choice: UNIFIL Denies Involvement in Kidnapping of Lebanese Sea Captain
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