Hezbollah chief urges Beirut to allow Syrian migrant boats to leave for Europe

Hezbollah chief urges Beirut to allow Syrian migrant boats to leave for Europe
Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah gives a televised address during a rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs, Lebanon, May 13, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 13 May 2024
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Hezbollah chief urges Beirut to allow Syrian migrant boats to leave for Europe

Hezbollah chief urges Beirut to allow Syrian migrant boats to leave for Europe
  • Hassan Nasrallah called for ‘a national decision that says: we have opened the sea... whoever wants to leave for Europe, for Cyprus, the sea is in front of you. Take a boat and board it’
  • Cyprus, the EU’s easternmost member, is less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Lebanon and Syria, and wants to curb migrant boat departures from Lebanon toward its shores

BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Monday urged Lebanese authorities to open the seas for migrant boats to reach Europe, amid soaring anti-Syrian sentiment and accusations the West is seeking to keep refugees in Lebanon.
His remarks came in an apparent bid to pressure the European Union after it announced earlier this month $1 billion in aid to Lebanon to help tackle irregular migration.
Many in crisis-hit Lebanon have criticized the aid package as focused on preventing refugees from leaving the country, amid mounting calls for them to return home.
In a televised address, Nasrallah called for “a national decision that says: we have opened the sea... whoever wants to leave for Europe, for Cyprus, the sea is in front of you. Take a boat and board it.”
But “we do not propose forcing displaced Syrians to board boats and leave for Cyprus and Europe,” he added in the speech, broadcast on the group’s Al-Manar television channel.
Cyprus, the EU’s easternmost member, is less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Lebanon and Syria, and wants to curb migrant boat departures from Lebanon toward its shores.
Currently refugees “are prohibited (from leaving), and so they turn to smuggling and to rubber boats, and there are drownings in the sea, because the Lebanese army is implementing a political decision to stop them from migrating,” Nasrallah added.
Lebanon says it currently hosts around two million people from neighboring Syria — the world’s highest number of refugees per capita — with almost 785,000 registered with the United Nations.
Lebanon needs to tell the West that “we all have to coordinate with the Syrian government to return the displaced to Syria and to present them with aid there,” Nasrallah said.
He also urged Lebanon’s parliament to press the EU and Washington to lift sanctions on Syria that Damascus says are blocking aid and reconstruction efforts, adding: “If sanctions on Syria aren’t lifted, there will be no return” of refugees.
Nasrallah’s remarks came a day before Lebanon is expected to resume “voluntary returns” of Syrians, with dozens of families set to pass through two land border crossings in the country’s east, a year and a half after such returns were paused.
Lebanon’s economy collapsed in late 2019, turning it into a launchpad for migrants, with Lebanese joining Syrians and Palestinian refugees making perilous Europe-bound voyages.
Some Lebanese politicians have blamed Syrians for their country’s worsening troubles, and pressure often mounts ahead of an annual conference on Syria in Brussels, with ministers meeting this year on May 27.
Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have warned that Syria is not safe for returns.


Security Council backs UN secretary-general after Israel bans him from entering country

Security Council backs UN secretary-general after Israel bans him from entering country
Updated 04 October 2024
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Security Council backs UN secretary-general after Israel bans him from entering country

Security Council backs UN secretary-general after Israel bans him from entering country
  • Foreign Minister Israel Katz described Antonio Guterres as an “anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists” and declared him persona non grata
  • Council members say all nations need to have a ‘productive and effective relationship with the secretary-general’ and must not undermine his work or office

NEW YORK CITY: The Security Council on Thursday affirmed its “full support” for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and said any decision not to engage with him or his office was counterproductive. 

Israel on Wednesday banned Guterres from entering the country. Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared him to be persona non grata and an “anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists,” citing as a reason what he described as the UN chief’s failure to condemn the Iranian missile attack against Israel on Tuesday.

“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as nearly all the countries of the world have done, does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil,” he said.

“Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without Antonio Guterres.”

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for Guterres, described Katz’s comments as political and “just one more attack on UN staff that we’ve seen from the government of Israel.” The concept of “persona non grata” does not apply to UN staff, he added.

Addressing an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Wednesday, Guterres said he had condemned a similar attack against Israel by Iran in April and added: “As should have been obvious yesterday, in the context of the condemnation I expressed, I again strongly condemn yesterday’s massive missile attack by Iran on Israel.

“These attacks, paradoxically, do not seem to support the cause of the Palestinian people or reduce their suffering.”

Guterres also criticized Israel’s military operations in Gaza, describing them as “the most deadly and destructive military campaign in my years as secretary-general.”

Switzerland holds the presidency of the Security Council this month. The country’s permanent representative to the UN, Pascale Baeriswyl, said on Thursday that members of the council stressed the need for all nations to “have a productive and effective relationship with the secretary-general and to refrain from any actions that undermine his work and that of his office.”

She added: “The members of the Security Council further underscored that any decision not to engage with the UN secretary-general or the United Nations is counterproductive, especially in the context of escalating tensions in the Middle East.”


37 killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in past 24 hours, health ministry says

37 killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in past 24 hours, health ministry says
Updated 04 October 2024
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37 killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in past 24 hours, health ministry says

37 killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in past 24 hours, health ministry says
  • Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel and Hezbollah started swapping fire as the Gaza war worsened

BEIRUT: Thirty seven people were killed and 151 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon in the past 24 hours, the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement early on Friday

Among the dead were nine residents of an apartment in the Lebanese capital, according to ministry.

Israel has been pounding areas of the country where the Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence since late September, but has rarely struck in the heart of Beirut.

There was no warning before the strike late Wednesday, which hit the building close to the United Nations headquarters, the prime minister’s office and parliament. Hezbollah’s civil defense unit said seven of its members were killed.
Israel is also conducting a ground incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah, while also conducting strikes in Gaza that killed dozens, including children. The Israeli military said nine soldiers have died in the conflict in southern Lebanon.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage.

Israel declared war on the militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.

Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

 

 

 


UN peacekeepers in Lebanon stay put, despite Israel asking them to move

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon stay put, despite Israel asking them to move
Updated 04 October 2024
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UN peacekeepers in Lebanon stay put, despite Israel asking them to move

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon stay put, despite Israel asking them to move
  • UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix: “The parties have an obligation to respect the safety of and security of peacekeepers, and I want to insist on that”
  • UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, operates between the Litani River in the north and the Blue Line in the south

UNITED NATIONS: United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon remain in place — despite Israel asking them to move — and provide the only communications link between the countries’ militaries, the UN peacekeeping chief said on Thursday.
“Peacekeepers continue to do their best to implement their Security Council mandate in obviously very difficult conditions,” UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters, adding that contingency plans were ready for both good and bad outcomes.
The mission, known as UNIFIL, is mandated by the Security Council to help the Lebanese army keep the area free of weapons and armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese state. That has sparked friction with Iran-backed Hezbollah, which effectively controls southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military asked UN peacekeepers earlier this week to prepare to relocate more than 5 km (3 miles) from the border between Israel and Lebanon — known as the Blue Line — “as soon as possible, in order to maintain your safety,” according to an excerpt from the message, seen by Reuters.
“The peacekeepers are currently staying in their position, all of them,” Lacroix told reporters. “The parties have an obligation to respect the safety of and security of peacekeepers, and I want to insist on that.”

Lacroix said UNIFIL was continuing to liaise with both countries, describing the mission as “the only channel of communication” between them. The mission was working to protect civilians and support the safe movement of civilians and delivery of humanitarian aid.
The UN peacekeepers operate between the Litani River in the north and the Blue Line in the south. The mission has more than 10,000 troops from 50 countries and about 800 civilian staff, according to its website.
Israel’s military told residents of more than 20 towns in south Lebanon to evacuate their homes immediately on Thursday as it pressed on with its cross-border incursion and struck Hezbollah targets in a suburb of Beirut.


Palestinian health ministry says 16 killed in Israeli strike on West Bank

Palestinian health ministry says 16 killed in Israeli strike on West Bank
Updated 03 October 2024
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Palestinian health ministry says 16 killed in Israeli strike on West Bank

Palestinian health ministry says 16 killed in Israeli strike on West Bank

RAMALLAH: At least 16 people were killed in the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said late Thursday, following an Israeli air strike in the area.
“Sixteen martyrs following the bombing of the Tulkarm camp by the occupation,” the Palestinian health ministry said on its Telegram account.
The Israeli army confirmed the strike on the town in the northern West Bank, describing it as a joint operation carried out by the Shin Bet internal security service and the air force, according to a brief statement by the military.
Reached by telephone, camp official Faisal Salama told AFP that the attack had been carried out by an F-16 fighter.
A resident from the area said the Israeli plane had “hit a cafeteria in a three-story building.”
“There are many victims in the hospital,” the resident added, saying the toll would likely rise.
Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza which began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
Since the Hamas attack, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 699 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 24 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian militant attacks during the same period, Israeli officials say.
Major Israeli operations in the West Bank are sometimes occurring “at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades,” United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said last month.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and its forces regularly make incursions into Palestinian communities, but the current raids as well as comments by Israeli officials mark an escalation, residents say.


G7 voices ‘deep concern’ over ‘deteriorating situation’ in Mideast

G7 voices ‘deep concern’ over ‘deteriorating situation’ in Mideast
Updated 03 October 2024
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G7 voices ‘deep concern’ over ‘deteriorating situation’ in Mideast

G7 voices ‘deep concern’ over ‘deteriorating situation’ in Mideast

LONDON: Leaders of the G7 countries on Thursday voiced concern over the “deteriorating situation” in the Middle East while warning against further “uncontrollable escalation” in the region.

G7 leaders “express deep concern over the deteriorating situation in the Middle East and condemn in the strongest terms Iran’s direct military attack against Israel,” they said in a statement.

They warned that the “dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks fueling uncontrollable escalation... which is in no one’s interest.”

The statement said G7 leaders had discussed “coordinated efforts and actions” to avoid further escalation of conflict in the region, without specifying details.

“We also reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the unconditional release of all hostages, a significant and sustained increase in the flow of humanitarian assistance, and an end to the conflict,” it said.