New Zealand general named chief of staff for UN truce operation in Middle East

Brig. Gen. Clive Lilley of New Zealand has been appointed Chief of Staff of the oldest United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Middle East.

General Lilley succeeds Maj. Gen. Carl Dodd of Ireland, who gave up his post at the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) at the end of September.

UNTSO was established in May 1948 to assist the UN Mediator and the Truce Commission in supervising the observance of the truce in Palestine.

Since then, UNTSO has also supervised the General Armistice Agreements of 1949 and the observation of the ceasefire in the Suez Canal area and the Golan Heights following the Arab-Israeli war of June 1967.

UNTSO currently assists and cooperates with the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights in the Israel-Syria sector, and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the Israel-Lebanon sector. UNTSO is also present in the Egypt-Israel sector in the Sinai.