Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC Briefing on Lebanon
Mr. President,
We would like to thank USG Jean-Pierre Lacroix and USG Tom Fletcher, as well as ASG Khaled Khiari. We are grateful for their detailed but way disquieting briefings on the situation in Lebanon.
Escalating hostilities along the Blue Line and beyond, which have been ongoing for nearly a month now, are affecting not only our friendly nation of Lebanon, but also the peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) deployed in the south of the country. A clear and at the same time tragic confirmation of this is the death of three UNIFIL personnel and the injuring of several others over the past 48 hours. We express our sincere condolences to the families of the deceased and wish the injured peacekeepers a speedy recovery.
As far as we can tell from the statements made by the leadership of the UN and UNIFIL, the investigation into what transpired in the south of Lebanon is underway. We expect to receive a comprehensive report on this from the UN Secretariat in a timely manner, including information on those responsible for these egregious attacks.
Russia strongly condemns all attacks on UNIFIL contingent, whoever the perpetrators may be. We support the calls by UN Secretary-General António Guterres for the parties to the conflict to observe international law and guarantee the safety of the Blue Helmets. We firmly believe that a ceasefire along the Lebanese-Israeli border must be established as swiftly as possible. Otherwise, the heinous outbreaks of violence in the south Lebanon will not be the last on the list of deadly incidents affecting UN personnel.
Mr. President,
The recent days are witnessing another worrying trend, which is the IDF’s targeted hunting of the media representatives covering the events “on the ground” in the area of the Israeli-Lebanese confrontation. According to the information we have, a well-known journalist from Al-Manar TV, Ali Shuaib, as well as his colleagues from Al-Mayadeen TV, Fatima and Mohammad Ftouni, have been killed in an Israeli drone strike in the vicinity of the city of Jezzine on March 28.
Earlier, on March 19, members of a Russia Today camera crew were injured in the south of Lebanon as a result of a missile strike by the Israeli Air Force. The targeted strike was carried out in the proximity to where they were filming, and where there were no military facilities, which is clearly confirmed by the cameraman capturing munition’s detonation there. We view such actions by the Israeli side and its military as a gross violation of international law and a deliberate interference with the work of the media. We demand that a thorough investigation of this incident be held by the Israeli authorities, that the perpetrators be brought to justice, and that no such incidents be allowed to happen again.
Mr. President,
Like most of those present in this chamber, we are deeply concerned about intensified Israeli military actions in Lebanon, including the daily exchange of fire and the consequences thereof for both sides of the conflict, as well as the destruction of critical civilian infrastructure. While we are discussing the incident involving UNIFIL, Israel has launched another powerful airstrike on Beirut. Let me remind you about the root causes of the current escalation of the Lebanese-Israeli confrontation: it is precisely the aggression of Washington and West Jerusalem against Iran that served as a tripwire for a broader disruption of the fragile stability in the Middle East. Unfortunately, many members of the Security Council remain stubbornly silent about this, and are persistently attempting to pin all the blame exclusively on the Lebanese resistance, portraying it as the main culprit behind the spike of violence along the Blue Line. At the same time, Israel’s numerous violations of the ceasefire over the past year and a half are being swept under the rug.
Such a one-sided approach by a host of States – including those directly involved in the current major regional war – in no way facilitates the normalization of the situation in the region; on the contrary, this eggs on the conflicting parties to escalate the conflict. As a result, we are witnessing an ever-rising civilian casualties and large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure.
In Lebanon alone, since March 2, nearly 1,500 people have died as a result of IDF actions, the number of wounded is nearing 4,000, and more than a million Lebanese people have become IDPs. Israeli strikes on medical facilities in the Arab republic have become daily routine. Against this backdrop, hawkish rhetoric from West Jerusalem is growing louder, including orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to expand the so-called buffer zone in the south of Lebanon, which is unlawfully controlled by the IDF.
Mr. President,
We reaffirm our country’s commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon. We urge the Israeli leadership to refrain from using solely force to address its legitimate security concerns, to withdraw its contingents from occupied territories, and to return to the path of diplomacy. A key benchmark for the parties must remain strict adherence to their obligations under Security Council Resolution 1701 and other relevant Council decisions, including those concerning the parameters of UNIFIL’s mandate, since UNIFIL personnel, despite security threats, remain on the ground, fulfilling, at the cost of their lives, the mandate bestowed upon them by the UN Security Council to stabilize the situation in the region.
Thank you.
