Secretary-General Appoints Major General Stefano Del Col of Italy Head of Mission, Force Commander of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Major General Stefano Del Col of Italy as Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

Major General Del Col succeeds Major General Michael Beary of Ireland, who will complete his assignment on 7 August.  The Secretary-General is grateful to Major General Beary for his exemplary service and leadership of UNIFIL over the past two years.

Major General Del Col has had a long and distinguished career in the Italian Army.  As a Staff Officer, he served as Special Projects Section Chief, as North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Force Planning Section Chief and as Italian Army Liaison Officer to the British Army.  From 2009 to 2011, he served as Defence Strategy and Operations Policy Branch Chief at the Defence Staff Headquarters in Rome.  Since 2015, Major General Del Col has been the Senior Deputy Chief of the Cabinet Office of the Minister for Defence.

He has extensive international operational experience, including in Kosovo, Lebanon and Libya.  He served with UNIFIL in 2008 as Battalion Commander and in 2014‑2015 as Commander of Sector West and Italian Contingent Commander.

Born in 1961, Major General Del Col holds a bachelor’s degree in strategic sciences and a bachelor’s degree (with distinction) in international relations and diplomatic sciences from the University of Trieste, Italy.  He also holds a master’s degree in strategic sciences from the University of Turin and a master’s degree in international military studies from the University of Milan, Italy.