UN calls on Israel, Hizbollah to ‘show restraint at all times’
Guterres warns in a new report that Unauthorised weasons in the hands of the Lebanese militant group and threatening rhetoric from it and Israeli officials ‘heightens risk of miscalculations and escalation into conflict’
UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretarygeneral Antonio Guterres warned in a new report that unauthorised weapons in the hands of Hizbollah and threatening rhetoric from the Lebanese militant group and Israeli officials “heightens risk of miscalculation and escalation into conlict.”
The UN chief called on Hezbollah and Israel, who fought a war in 2006, “to exercise restraint at all times” and “refrain from potentially inflammatory comments.”
Guterres said in the report to the UN Security Council circulated Friday that allegations of arms transfers to Hizbollah continue “on a regular basis,” which the UN takes seriously. But it “is not in a position to substantiate them independently, he said.
Guterres noted, however, that Hizbollah has displayed the weapons and acknowledged using them.
The UN resolution that ended the 2006 war calls for Hizbollah and all other militias operating in Lebanon to be disarmed and demobilised.
It also calls for the 10,700-strong U. peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL to monitor a zone south of the Litani River near Israel’s border where Hizbollah is banned from keeping weapons.
Guterres said Israel informed UNIFIL of the alleged presence of Hizbollah weapons and infrastructure in three speciic locations in that zone, which the UN force closely monitored, including by aerial reconnaissance, satellite imagery and patrols.
But he said “no evidence to confirm the allegations was established.”
Guterres cited examples of heightened rhetoric between Hizbollah’s leaders and senior Israeli oficials and said that despite “relative calm” along the Un-drawn Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon the level of tensions between the two countries remains high.
Rhetoric on both sides, he said, has “resulted in increased anxiety, including among the local population.”
Guterres said he was equally concerned about continued Israeli overlights of Lebanese territory. From July 1 to Oct.30, he said UNIFIL recorded 758 air violations totaling 3,188 overlight hours, “an increase of 80 percent compared with the same period in 2016.”
He said drones were involved in over 93 per cent or 707 of the violations.
With over one million Syrian refugees in lebanon, gut err es also said“anti- syrian refugee sentiment is on the rise in the media and in the political discourse.”