Malaysia will send one final peacekeeping team to Lebanon next year before ending its participation in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) in December 2026.
Defence minister Khaled Nordin said the decision follows the UN Security Council’s move on Aug 29 to extend Unifil’s mandate for another 16 months, its final extension.
“This means Malaysia will send one team next year, and after that we will no longer have any presence in Unifil,” he told reporters after visiting the Sungai Besi army camp today, Bernama reported.
The Security Council resolution aims to ensure an orderly and safe drawdown of UN forces in Lebanon.
Malaysia is part of a coalition of 47 troop-contributing countries in Unifil, which is tasked with monitoring a ceasefire in south Lebanon that ended a 33-day war in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.
Unifil’s force consisted of a total of 10,509 peacekeepers as of Aug 1, with Malaysia contributing 830 personnel.
Malaysia joined the mission in 2006 and has since deployed troops, engineers and medical teams as part of its peacekeeping commitment.
Separately, Khaled said the Malaysian armed forces are prepared to assist in Afghanistan following the Aug 31 earthquake, pending a decision by the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma).
“The type of aid will depend on the needs on the ground … whether to set up a field hospital or deploy a medical team as we did previously in Bangladesh and Turkey,” he said.
The 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on Aug 31, killing more than 2,200 people and injuring over 3,600, according to reports.
