The Italian military contingent engaged in Lebanon has concluded an Italian language course in favor of some officers and non-commissioned officers of the Lebanese Directorate-General for Security. Today the ceremony for the presentation of attendance certificates and certificates of knowledge of the language, which took place at the base of Shama, in the south of Lebanon, where the Italian "blue helmets" of Unifil operate, the UN interposition force deployed in the west region of the country.
After about six months of course, the students took an exam that allowed them to acquire the first level of knowledge of the Italian language according to the standards set by the Council of Europe in the common European reference framework for the knowledge of languages (CEFR).
At the end-of-course ceremony were General Arturo Nitti, commander of the west sector of UNIFIL, Colonel Fawzi Chamoun, an officer in the Directorate-General for Security and Dr. Cristina Foti, director of the "Dante Alighieri Society" of Tripoli who has been working with the Italian "blue helmets" of civil-military cooperation, also under an agreement signed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
"It is a goal that makes us proud," said the commander of the western sector of UNIFIL, "as it allows to operate at best alongside the Lebanese military forces for stabilization and peace in this area through patrol activities, control and surveillance, in full compliance with the mandate dictated by the 1701 resolution of the UN Security Council ".
"Not only that," Colonel Chamoun echoed. "Learning the Italian language serves to strengthen the friendship relations between peoples historically linked by common roots and by important experiences of dialogue and mutual respect".
