<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, announced this Monday from New York that there is a plan, “prepared and ready”, to “quickly evacuate the Spanish colony in Lebanon, if necessary”, but he specified that the plan “is not currently activated”.</strong></h4> Official sources from Foreign Ministry assured <em>The Diplomat</em> today that “Spain has planned and prepared the evacuation plan for Lebanon, which will be activated in the event that circumstances require it”. In this regard, Albares assured the program ‘Al Rojo Vivo’ on La Sexta, from New York (where he is accompanying the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in the High Level Week of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly), that there is a plan in place “if it is necessary to quickly evacuate the Spanish colony in Lebanon”. However, and with the aim of “not alarming”, the minister specified that this plan “is not currently activated”, but “everything is prepared and ready” to be put into action, as was done in its day in “Ukraine, Niger, Sudan, Gaza or Israel”. José Manuel Albares also announced that the Ministry he heads has already “updated the travel recommendations to Lebanon”, in which it is advised against “traveling under any circumstances to Lebanon”. “I want to make an appeal to all Spaniards not to travel under any circumstances” to the country, he declared. As regards those who are “currently in Lebanon” or are in the country “in transit for tourism or work”, the minister urges them “to leave the country with the commercial flights and means that are still operating”, since “there are airlines that are beginning to suspend their flights”. <h5><strong>UNIFIL</strong></h5> Albares also reminded the Spanish troops assigned to the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), whose work, “under the flag of the United Nations” is “the most noble task that can be carried out”. Precisely, the Spanish contingent in Lebanon, made up of “almost 700 men and women” and who constitute “the great priority” of Foreign Affairs, will be the main point of the meeting that the minister will hold this Friday with “the deputy secretary general who is precisely in charge of this mission” and of the whole of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix. According to Albares, the UN “is not considering”, for the moment, putting an end to this mission. According to a spokesperson for UNIFIL, Tilak Pokharel, who spoke to Europa Press, the mission is not considering evacuating its military and civilian contingents for now, but has plans in place in case the situation in southern Lebanon, where it is deployed, continues to deteriorate. “There are no evacuation efforts underway at the moment,” he said. The military contingent is at its bases while the civilian contingent is at the headquarters in Naqura and in the other offices of the mission, including Beirut, added the spokesman, who did not want to go into details about the evacuation plans or under what circumstances the decision could be made to withdraw the more than 10,000 troops that make up the mission. The UN will decide “based on the situation on the ground and in consultation with headquarters and troop-contributing countries,” he added. UNIFIL, which has troops from 50 countries (which, as sovereign states, could unilaterally withdraw their troops), has been commanded since February 2022 by Spanish Lieutenant General Aroldo Lázaro.
