Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Tuesday that the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 is still in effect despite the latest conflict between Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Israel.
“What we care mostly about is to continue to protect Lebanon by ensuring full implementation of the resolution,” Hariri said in a statement issued by his office.
Hariri said that the situation in the whole region is complex, adding that Lebanon does not need any new crisis.
Tensions have escalated in the past week between Lebanon and Israel after a series of airstrikes conducted on Aug. 24 by Israel in Syria, killing two Hezbollah fighters, followed by an attack on Aug. 25 by two Israeli drones on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
These Israeli attacks prompted Iranian-backed Hezbollah to retaliate on Sunday by firing anti-tank missiles at an Israel military vehicle in Avivim, north of Israel. Israel then retaliated by shelling Hezbollah targets within the Lebanese border.
The new escalation raised questions about the fate of the UN Resolution 1701, while Lebanese political leaders expressed their commitment to its implementation in coordination with the Lebanese army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
In August 2006, the UN Security Council unanimously approved the resolution to end a 34-day bloody war between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. It called for full cessation of hostilities between the two sides, pulling out all Israeli troops from Lebanon, while deploying UNIFIL soldiers in the south of Lebanon.
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