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Lebanon’s president has said an Israeli drone attack on Beirut at the weekend was a “declaration of war” that justified a military response.
“What happened is a declaration of war,” Michel Aoun told Jan Kubis, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, in a meeting yesterday.
“This allows us to resort to our right to defend our sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” he added, in a statement released by his office.
Also yesterday, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said his government wants to avoid an escalation with Israel, but the international community must reject Israel’s “blatant violation” of Lebanese sovereignty.
“The Lebanese government sees it best to avoid any sliding of the situation towards a dangerous escalation but this requires the international community affirming its rejection of this blatant violation,” Hariri told the ambassadors of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members, his office said.
Alleged Israeli drones crashed in the southern suburb of Beirut on Sunday, prompting a strong reaction from the leader of Hezbollah movement.
In a speech hours after one of the drones crashed in the Lebanese capital, Hassan Nasrallah said the Israeli drones were on a “suicide mission”.
“Hezbollah will not allow such an aggression,” he said in a televised address on Sunday. “The time when Israeli aircraft come and bombard parts of Lebanon is over.”
Nasrallah also pledged to retaliate to an Israeli air attack inside Syria that took place late on Saturday, which he said killed two Hezbollah members.
Later on Sunday, Iraq’s powerful Hashd al-Shaabi force, or Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), blamed Israel for carrying out a deadly drone attack close to the border with Syria.
Yesterday, Iraq’s President Barham Saleh hosted leading members of the Hashd al-Shaabi along with the prime minister and the parliament speaker to discuss the instability.
“These attacks are a blatant, hostile act that target Iraq,” the presidency said in a statement, adding: “Iraqi sovereignty and the wellbeing of its people are a red line.”
It stressed the government would take all necessary steps to “deter aggressors and defend Iraq”, but did not threaten a military response.
Later yesterday, the Hashd said it spotted another drone flying over one of its bases in the northern province of Nineveh.
“It was immediately dealt with using anti-aircraft weaponry. The drone left the area,” the group said in a statement.—Al Jazeera.
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