Overview

• Spanish Lieutenant General Aroldo Lázaro ended his tenure on June 24, 2025, handing command of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon to Italian General Diodato Abagnara.
• Lázaro commanded 10,000 peacekeepers drawn from 49 countries along the Blue Line separating Lebanon and Israel.
• He led high-level diplomatic efforts to calm cross-border violence following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks.
• UNIFIL, established in 1978 and refocused in 2006 to oversee the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, continues to monitor the border and support Lebanese Armed Forces.
• Lázaro will take command of Eurocorps, a rapid-response force under the European Union and NATO, on September 18, 2025.