Lebanon files complaint with UN over Israeli aggressions

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
6 Jan 2024 06:50
1 Shares

The spokesperson for Lebanon's mission to the UN says Beirut sent a letter about "Israel’s" attack on a residential area in the southern suburb of Beirut.

Lebanese civil defense members spray with water the street by the building that was hit by a drone strike targeting Hamas deputy chief Saleh al-Arouri in the southern suburb of Beirut on January 3, 2024. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)

Lebanon has sent a letter of complaint to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the president of the UN Security Council after "Israel" carried out on Tuesday a deadly attack in Beirut, the spokesperson for the Lebanese mission to the United Nations, Katia Badr, confirmed.

"Lebanon sent an identical letter to the president of the Security Council and the Secretary-General about Israel’s attack on a residential area in the southern suburb of Beirut, which led to the killing of two Lebanese and five Palestinians," Badr told Sputnik.

One of the killed was the Deputy Head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Saleh al-Arouri.

The letter described the attack as being the "most dangerous chapter" in a series of escalating, hostile acts perpetrated by "Israel" against Lebanon since October 8.

The incidents include "Israel" bombarding Lebanese villages, displacing civilians, using banned phosphorus munitions, and targeting positions belonging to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the letter indicated.

"Lebanon calls on the United Nations to condemn this attack; pressure Israel to desist from escalation; and take all necessary measures to put a stop to Israeli attacks on the sovereignty, territorial integrity and people of Lebanon in order to prevent the conflict from escalating and plunging the entire region into an all-out destructive war that will be difficult to contain," the letter read.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati requested on Tuesday that the Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Abdallah Bou Habib, urgently file a complaint with the United Nations Security Council regarding Israeli violations.

Mikati had earlier condemned the Israeli attack that targeted the Southern Suburb of Beirut and resulted in martyrs, describing it as "a new Israeli crime aimed at inevitably dragging Lebanon into a new phase of confrontation, following the daily ongoing assaults in the South, resulting in a significant number of martyrs and wounded individuals," as reported by NNA.

"This explosion undoubtedly aims to implicate Lebanon, serving as a clear response to our efforts to keep the specter of the ongoing war in Gaza away from Lebanon," Mikati said.

"We appeal to the concerned nations to pressure Israel to halt its targeting. We also caution against the Israeli political establishment resorting to exporting its failures in Gaza towards the southern borders to establish new facts and rules of engagement."