(17 July 2017) The second training and requalification course for the Presidential Guard by Italian instructors organised by the Italian Bilateral Military Mission in Lebanon (MIBIL), ended in recent days. The ceremony was attended by the Italian Ambassador to Beirut, Massimo Marotti and the Commander of the Italian Special Forces, Gen. Div. Nicola Zanelli. The five-week course allowed 38 members of the Presidential Guard to be trained by a Mobile Training Team of the Special Interforce Forces Command composed of the Army, Navy and some Carabinieri Special Intervention Teams. The Italian Bilateral Mission, currently headed by Gen. B. Salvatore Radizza, is developing a programme that began in 2015 aimed at the Lebanese Armed Forces units acquiring advanced operational capabilities in order to strengthen the Lebanese national institution committed to ensuring the security and defense of the State and population. (Red)

AN ANCIENT FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN ITALY AND LEBANON

Italy and Lebanon are linked by an ancient friendship, based on their common presence in the Mediterranean, their ancient civilizations and millennia of common history, as well as on their intense commercial relations and consolidated cultural and social exchanges over time. In the 16th century, the privileged relationship between the Emirh Fakhreddine and the Medici family of Tuscany was decisive in shaping modern Lebanon as we know it today, a mixture of Western and Arab cultures. Lebanon has also left important traces in Italian history: the Maronita College was founded in 1584 in Rome, to foster contacts between priests, researchers and young students, who continue today in the framework of Inter-University cooperation. This excellent level of bilateral relations between Italy and Lebanon is now strengthened by the common visions of the two countries on a number of Middle Eastern issues and by the growing awareness that in a globalised world the two shores of the Mediterranean share the same destiny.