Albanian unit to join UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.

Albanian unit to join UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. Defence ministers of Albania Fatmir Mediu and Italy Arturo Parisi decided that the Albanian army will deploy an elite unit to assist the peacekeeping efforts of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The unit will be under Italian command. The decision was made during Mediu’s recent official visit in Rome . The country has pledged to support the UN mission in Lebanon earlier. Mediu also highlighted that Albania stands firm by its reform commitments and hopes to receive a clear signal for its NATO membership perspective at the organisation’s summit in Riga on November 28. In the meantime, the US Senate has passed a resolution in support of the aspirations of the three Adriatic Charter countries ( Albania , Croatia and Macedonia ) to join the alliance. After the Riga summit, the heads of NATO states will hold a summit in Washington , DC in 2008.