Lebanon ready to defend self against any Israeli aggression: President
President Michel Aoun has censured Israel’s repeated violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty, saying Beirut is prepared to counter any potential threat from the Tel Aviv regime.
“Lebanon is keen on maintaining stability and calm in South Lebanon, but it is also ready to defend itself shall Israel carry out an assault,” Aoun said in a meeting with UN Under-Secretary General Jean-Pierre Lacroix in Beirut on Monday.
Aoun further denounced Tel Aviv for using the Lebanese airspace for strikes against Syria, saying the regime continues to violate UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
The resolution which brokered a ceasefire in the war of aggression Israel launched against Lebanon in 2006, calls on Tel Aviv to respect Beirut’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Aoun added that an Israeli plan to build a wall along Lebanon’s southern border was “an additional violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.”
The Lebanese government says the wall passes through territory, which belongs to Lebanon but is located on the UN-designated Blue Line demarcating the regime’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.
The wall, Beirut says, would breach Lebanese territory at 13 different points, calling for “corrections” along the Blue Line.
Over the past weeks, the Tel Aviv regime has escalated its threats against Lebanon’s offshore oil and gas exploration projects.
Lebanon and Israel have nearly come to blows over a tender by Lebanon in December for oil and gas exploration projects in two of the country’s 10 offshore blocks in the Mediterranean Sea, namely Block 4 and Block 9.
Israel, which claims sovereignty over the ninth block and claims it runs into its side of the Mediterranean, has blasted the move as “very provocative.”
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah, the country's de facto military power, has vowed to defend the rights of its homeland in oil and gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean region against any new Israeli aggression.
Hezbollah helped the Lebanese army defend the nation against two bloody Israeli wars in 2000 and 2006.
Hezbollah attacks Israeli forces after Lebanese homes blown up
Israel issues new evacuation orders, shortly launches strikes on southern Lebanon
Hezbollah to target Tel Aviv in response to Israeli attacks on Beirut: Sheikh Qassem
VIDEO | Former FBI agent criticizes US Congress for 'outright corruption'
IRGC chief urges Muslim countries to cut aid routes to Israel
'New chapter in cooperation': Iran, Venezuela sign new MoUs
Jordan sentences former lawmaker for supporting Palestinian resistance
Basij volunteer forces hold massive drills in southwestern Iran
Israeli war criminals 'not welcome', US city says after ICC ruling
US vetoing of Gaza ceasefire resolution ‘disgraceful’: Iran’s UN envoy
VIDEO | IAEA adopts anti-Iran resolution tabled by E3
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
