Lebanon warned on Wednesday that the raging conflict between Hamas and Israel could spill over the Middle East region, “in the absence of a political agreement and the inability of Western countries to curb Israel’s blind desire for revenge.”
In a speech delivered by Hadi Hachem, Chargé d’Affaires of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on behalf of caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdallah Bou Habib, to the UN Security Council in New York, Lebanon considered that “without a just solution to the Palestinian cause and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders, and without Israel’s withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories in Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, there will be no peace in the region.”
Hachem reiterated that Lebanon has never “wanted or sought to go to war,” stressing “its commitment to international law, the United Nations Charter and Security Council resolutions.”
The diplomat said that “contacts are being held at local and international levels to keep Lebanon out of this war and preserve calm along the Blue Line, in accordance with the provisions of Resolution 1701.”
He continued, “In the face of daily Israeli threats and attacks against Lebanon, the country is acting with the utmost restraint out of respect for international resolutions and to preserve stability in the South.”
Hachem also praised “the important role played by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), in coordination with the Lebanese army, in curbing escalation.”
With regard to the Israeli attacks in Gaza, the diplomat considered that they run counter to the most elementary rules of international law, since no law can justify the murder of a population who has been incarcerated for over half a century.
