EU countries contributing to UNIFIL see mission as "essential and fundamental", Spanish Minister

MADRID (Reuters) - The EU countries contributing to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, dubbed as UNIFIL, say it is "essential and fundamental" and only the UN can decide whether to end it, Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Wednesday after a video call with 15 of her counterparts.

"All the countries that are part of it are firmly supporting the UNIFIL mission, our soldiers, our people who are there," she said in a video statement sent to reporters.

EU countries, led by Italy, France and Spain, have thousands of troops in the 10,000-strong peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, which has said it has repeatedly come under attack from Israeli forces in recent days. Israel has called on the United Nations to move the troops out of the combat zone.

(Reporting by Inti Landauro, editing by Emma Pinedo)