'Israel' attempting to change Lebanon's borders: Arab Movement chief
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The leader of the Arab Movement party underlines that the Israeli occupation is attempting to carve up Lebanon how it wishes.
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A resident gestures as rescue workers search for victims at the site of Thursday's Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, October 11, 2024 (AP)
Shaker Berjawi, head of the Arab Movement Party, said Friday that Lebanon had not violated UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for a ceasefire between Lebanon and the Israeli occupation. He added that there are ongoing attempts to impose a new border demarcation on Lebanon.
In comments to Al Mayadeen from the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a residential building in the Basta neighborhood of Beirut on Thursday evening, Berjawi mentioned significant violations of Lebanese sovereignty, including US intelligence operations at Beirut Airport and border crossings.
Berjawi emphasized that any force entering Lebanon outside the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) would be considered an invading force and dealt with accordingly.
He also criticized the United States for stalling efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, which he believes has allowed the Israeli occupation to shift its military focus to Lebanon.
"Israeli killings are nothing new, but what is new is the American cover-up of this enemy, exposing the falsehood of US democracy under the guise of justifying Israeli actions, no matter how deadly," Berjawi stressed.
He reaffirmed Beirut's enduring role in defending Arab identity and Palestine, noting that the destruction and displacement Lebanon has suffered in the current war mirror what the occupation has experienced.
Finally, Berjawi called on the Lebanese government and security agencies to fulfill their duties toward areas affected by Israeli aggression.
Days earlier, Sleiman Frangieh, head of the Marada Movement, expressed his belief in the eventual victory of the resistance and noted that Lebanon should wait for a ceasefire to elect a national Arab president who would support the resistance.
UN 'appalled' by rhetoric surrounding war on Lebanon
The United Nations stated Friday it was "appalled" by provocative language surrounding "Israel's" war on Lebanon and urged an end to "bellicose posturing". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Lebanese people this week that if they did not turn on the Lebanese Resistance, Hezbollah, they would face a destiny akin to Palestinians in Gaza.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that the death toll from the Israeli occupation's aggression on Lebanon has reached 2,169, with 10,212 wounded since October 8, 2023.
"We are appalled by sweeping inflammatory language on multiple sides," said Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office, at a Geneva media conference without providing specifics of the inflammatory language on the Lebanese side.
"Recent language threatening Lebanese people as a whole and calling on them to either rise up against Hezbollah or face destruction like Gaza, risks being understood as encouraging or accepting violence directed against civilians and civilian objects, in violation of international law."
She also condemned the "ongoing denigration of the UN, in particular UNRWA," which supports almost six million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, urging that such "toxic" rhetoric must end.
"The killing, destruction, as well as bellicose posturing by those in positions of power, must end," Shamdasani expressed, adding that "widening conflict and progressive escalation put the lives and wellbeing of potentially millions of people across the region at risk."
