Lebanese President Warns Israel After Israeli ‘Threat’ At U.N.
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Saturday that any Israeli attempt to violate Lebanon’s sovereignty would be met with the “appropriate response”, in a statement released by his office.
“Any attempt to hurt Lebanese sovereignty or expose the Lebanese to danger will find the appropriate response,” the statement said.
The February 18 statement said Aoun was reacting to recent remarks in a letter at the United Nations by Israel’s U.N. ambassador, which amounted to a “masked attempt to threaten security and stability” in southern Lebanon, but did not say what the remarks were.
Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said on Thursday that all of Lebanon would be a target if Hezbollah fired on Israel.
Aoun’s comments also followed warnings this week by the leader of the armed Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, a political ally of the president, against any Israeli aggression.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group’s rockets had the ability to strike Israel’s nuclear reactor at Dimona and its military infrastructure – an apparent warning against any Israeli military action that he said might be approved by the new U.S. president, Donald Trump.
In 2006 Israel fought a month-long war against Hezbollah in south Lebanon.
Since then, hostilities between them have been limited to occasional firing across the border and air strikes by Israel against Hezbollah leaders and military equipment in Syria, where the group is fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
Trump’s administration has been vocal in its criticism of Hezbollah’s patron Iran and in its support for Israel.
(Reporting by John Davison in Beirut; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
