Beirut condemns Israel’s repeated violations of international law, use of Lebanon’s airspace to strike Syria
President Michel Sleiman strongly condemned Sunday Israel’s airstrike on Syria and its use of Lebanon’s airspace to carry out such an “aggression.”
According to his office, Sleiman “strongly condemned Israel’s aggression on Syrian sites [which it carried out] by violating Lebanese airspace to carry out these attacks which killed a number of civilians.”
“This act is not unusual for a mutual enemy [such as Israel] whose policy is based on aggression that takes advantage of the circumstances Syria is going through to carry out its aggression just as it used to do in Lebanon during its days of crisis.”
Israel carried out two aerial strikes in the past three days in Syria, media reports said. The attacks were likely launched from Lebanon’s airspace which the Jewish State violates on almost a daily basis.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati also denounced the strikes, saying they “underscored once again Israel’s aggressive intentions.”
“[The attacks] fall within the series of continuous areal violations to Lebanon’s sovereignty and its threats against Lebanon,” he added, according to a statement from his office.
Israel’s activities over Lebanon have intensified recently, with 18 warplanes flying over various Lebanese regions from Thursday to Saturday night.
With no official confirmation from Israel on the recent aerial bombardment, it was unclear what the Jewish state had struck.
Syria’s state TV said the attack was against a military facility north of the capital while Reuters, quoting a Western intelligence sources, said the operation hit Iranian-supplied missiles headed to Hezbollah.
“In last night’s attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah,” the intelligence source said.
Sleiman called on the international community again and the United Nations Security Council in particular to discourage Israel from using “its aggressive policy” but respect other countries’ sovereignty and comply with international resolutions.
He also called on the U.N. to convince Israel of the necessity to engage in the peace plan that guarantees stability for the region.
Caretaker Foreign Affairs Minister Adnan Mansour also condemned the airstrike, saying the Jewish state is preparing for something bigger as he called on the Arab League to take a firm stance.
“Once again, the terrorist state of Israeli carries out another aggression against sisterly Syria under a flimsy pretext to justify its barbaric attack which is in preparation for a wide aggression to blow up the region and push it toward a destructive confrontation regardless of the catastrophic results,” the minister said in a statement.
“We urge the Arab League to take firm stand with regards to this dangerous development to prevent what is worse which Israel is preparing for,” Mansour added.
Head of the Lebanese Democratic Party, Talal Arslan, who has visited Assad on several occasion, said the west is now using Israel against Syria, adding that no one should be blamed for seeking to protect Damascus any longer.
“The west which was paralyzed by the Russian-Chinese stance against intervening in Syria is searching today for new channels to carry out its battle against the Syrian people and Israel is perfect for the job because it never respected international rules or agreements,” he said in a statement.
“How can we remain silent over the bombing of Syria?” he asked.
“No one is to blame anymore if they run to protect Syria where the Syrian people are no longer the only ones concerned with defending it but all of us … as long as the issue turned from a domestic Syrian affair into an Israeli aggression whose goals are now obvious,” Arslan said.
Meanwhile, the Amal Movement also condemned “Israel’s latest aggression,”
“[Israel seeks] to enter the Syrian crisis and add fuel to the fire and raise tensions to the point when regional peace and security are threatened,” the party, one of President Bashar Assad’s allies in Lebanon, said.
“Israel’s justification is rejected and the Israeli aggression is an official Israeli policy part of its attempt to drag the region to war and benefit from events in Syria to target the resistance,” it added.
