Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Monday called Israeli attacks on the southern suburbs of the capital of Beirut and the town of Qousaya a "declaration of war."

BEIRUT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th August, 2019) Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Monday called Israeli attacks on the southern suburbs of the capital of Beirut and the town of Qousaya a "declaration of war."

Earlier in the day, Israel reportedly carried out airstrikes against a Palestinian group's position near Qousaya. The strike came after two suspected Israeli drones crashed in Beirut on Sunday.

"Attacks on the suburbs and the Qousaya area violate the 1701 resolution; these attacks allow Lebanon to use the right to protect its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity," Aoun said during a meeting with UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis.

The president added that the Lebanese people were seeking peace, not war, and "we do not accept that anyone threatens us in any way." </s> Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said on Monday his country had a right to defend itself after Israeli drone strikes that were like a “declaration of war”.

 

 “What happened was similar to a declaration of war which allows us to resort to our right to defending our sovereignty,” Aoun’s office quoted him as saying on Twitter.

 

 Two drones crashed early on Sunday in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which are dominated by Hezbollah, prompting the Iran-backed movement to warn Israeli soldiers at the border to await a response. </s> Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said on Monday his country had a right to defend itself after Israeli drone strikes that were like a “declaration of war”.



“What happened was similar to a declaration of war which allows us to resort to our right to defending our sovereignty,” Aoun’s office quoted him as saying on Twitter.



Two drones crashed early on Sunday in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which are dominated by Hezbollah, prompting the Iran-backed movement to warn Israeli soldiers at the border to await a response.

Last Update: Monday, 26 August 2019 KSA 16:50 - GMT 13:50 </s> BEIRUT- Lebanon's President Michel Aoun said on Monday his country had a right to defend itself after Israeli drone strikes that were like a "declaration of war."



"What happened was similar to a declaration of war which allows us to resort to our right to defending our sovereignty," Aoun's office quoted him as saying on Twitter.

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`; document.getElementById("linkPremium").innerHTML = cont; (function (v, i){ }); </s> The IDF has been on high alert since the weekend following threats from Hezbollah, Iran, and Lebanon.

Israel attacked an Iranian military base and a terrorist cell in Syria on Saturday night as they prepared to launch a drone attack against Israel. Iran responded with a verbal threat. Ali Rabiei, a spokesperson for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency on Monday, “Israel will pay a high price for its attacks. Repeated acts of aggression against Iraq are black stains on track records of this regime and we condemn any aggression against the sovereignty of regional countries.”

Channel 12 News cited an unnamed senior IDF officer who predicted that a Hezbollah attack would target Israeli military positions.

“The Israeli response to an attack will be disproportionate,” the officer said.

Tensions notched up even higher after two drones crashed outside a Hezbollah building in Beirut on Sunday. One of the drones crashed into the roof of the Hezbollah Media Center while the second one exploded in the air and damaged the building. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel but the Israeli government denied the accusation.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun discussed the alleged Israeli drone strikes against Iranian military targets in his country with United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Ján Kubiš, calling them a “declaration of war.”

“What happened was similar to a declaration of war which allows us to resort to our right to defending our sovereignty,” Aoun’s office quoted him as saying on Twitter.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday held a meeting with envoys from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council which included a representative from the U.S. Lebanese news site Naharnet reported that Hariri called the alleged drone-strike a “clear Israeli violation of Lebanese sovereignty.”

The Lebanese government is allied with Hezbollah. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a televised speech on Sunday in which he threatened Israel with reprisals.

“From tonight, I tell the Israeli army on the border, be prepared and wait for us,” Nasrallah said in the televised address, threatening that retaliation could come in “one day, two days, three days…”

“The home front is in a state of routine, and we are working to preserve that. The IDF has increased its level of preparedness, both in terms of defense and attack,” said Brig. Gen. Amit Fisher, the head of the IDF’s Bashan Division in the Northern Command.

Despite the rising tensions, it was reported that the IDF requested that the residents of northern Israel continue with their daily routine.

“Civilian activities are to continue as usual. All activities can go on, including trips and agricultural work. There are no restrictions on movement. At the same time, we as a military are advancing preparations for every scenario. There will be a lot of movement in the area,” the IDF stated according to an article on the Walla news site on Monday.

After a cabinet meeting on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the situation, calling on the world community to help Israel cope with aggressive Iranian expansionism.

“Iran is working on a broad front to carry out murderous terrorist attacks against the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “Israel will continue to defend its security however that may be necessary. I call on the international community to act immediately so that Iran halts these attacks.”

“[Israel will not] tolerate aggression against Israel from any country in the region. Any country that allows its territory to be used for aggression against Israel will face the consequences, and I repeat: the country will face the consequences.”

The office of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed on Sunday that Netanyahu had discussed the situation with the U.S.

“The secretary expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself against threats posed by the Iranian [Islamic] Revolutionary Guard Corps and to take action to prevent imminent attacks against Israeli assets in the region,” Pompeo’s office said in a statement.

“The secretary and the prime minister discussed how Iran is leveraging its foothold in Syria to threaten Israel and its neighbors. The prime minister noted that Israel would strike IRGC targets threatening Israel, wherever they are located,” the statement said.

Israel is also coping with increasing rocket attacks from Gaza as well as a wave of deadly internal terrorist attacks. </s> Lebanon, Iraq and Iran have declared recent Israeli aggression an act of war after attacks on Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq over the weekend, promising devastating retaliation if the violence continues.

A pair of kamikaze drone attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday and a drone strike on a Palestinian militia in the Bekaa valley early Monday morning were akin to “a declaration of war,” Lebanese President Michel Aoun told the United Nations Special Coordinator on Monday, adding that the aggression “allows us to resort to our right to defending our sovereignty.”

The international community must reject Israel’s “blatant violation” of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel, PM Saad al-Hariri implored ambassadors from the UN Security Council’s permanent members. “Any escalation could develop into a regional cycle of violence that nobody can predict the extent of.”

And any Israeli drones overflying Lebanon will be shot out of the sky, Hezbollah secretary-general Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Tel Aviv. “Hezbollah will tolerate no more Israeli drones penetrating Lebanese airspace,” he declared on Sunday after an explosive-laden drone took out Hezbollah’s media center in Beirut.

Nor was Lebanon the only nation to draw the line at the eruption of Israeli aggression over the weekend. A powerful bloc in Iraq’s parliament has demanded US troops leave the country after a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting Iran-allied Shiite militias known as Popular Mobilization Units over the past week.

The Fatah Coalition holds the US “fully responsible” for the Israeli attacks, “which we consider to be a declaration of war on Iraq and its people,” it said in a statement on Monday after yet another drone strike killed a PMU commander in the western town of al-Qaim. US troops, the coalition insists, are “no longer needed” in Iraq.

And in Syria, Israeli missiles attacked several targets outside Damascus over the weekend, killing at least two in what the IDF claimed was a preemptive strike against a “large-scale attack of multiple killer drones on Israel” by Iran - ironically, a larger version of what they themselves were preparing to inflict on Lebanon.

“Israel will pay a high price for its actions,” Ali Rabiei, spokesman for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, told reporters on Monday, calling the bombings “black stains on track records of this regime.” He praised the words of his regional allies, noting they “send a clear and severe message to the Zionist regime that its brazen acts of aggression will not go unanswered.”

Israel has ramped up its assaults on regional foes as PM Benjamin Netanyahu heads into what promises to be a close election - a re-do of April’s contest which saw him slightly edge out challenger (and former IDF head) Benny Gantz but fail to form a coalition government afterwards. Netanyahu has warned that retaliation by Hezbollah will be met with attacks on the Lebanese state as a whole, and boasted last week that he had given the IDF “a free hand” to “thwart Iran’s plans” - which has so far equated to bombing its allies in three countries.

Like this story? Share it with a friend! </s> By AFP - Aug 26,2019 - Last updated at Aug 26,2019

This photo taken from near the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila shows the border wall with Israel on Monday (AFP photo)

BEIRUT — Lebanon's president on Monday 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.

"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.

The army said two Israeli drones had violated Lebanese airspace over Beirut before dawn on Sunday, with one exploding in the air.

Hizbollah movement chief Hasan Nasrallah said an armed drone had hit a target in the party's Beirut stronghold, without specifying.

It was the first such "hostile action" since a 2006 war between Hizbollah and Israel, added the head of the Iran-backed party, also vowing to retaliate.

“I have repeatedly said before that Lebanon will not fire a single shot from its border unless it is in self-defence,” said Aoun.

“What happened yesterday allows us to exercise this right,” he added.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli air strikes targeted a Palestinian faction loyal to the Syrian government in eastern Lebanon.

State-run NNA news agency said “three hostile strikes” after midnight hit Lebanon’s eastern mountains near Qusaya town “where the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command has military posts”.

Aoun said Israeli attacks on Qusaya and Beirut violated a UN Security Council resolution ending the month-long 2006 war that killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 in Israel.

Lebanon had filed a complaint against Israel to the UN Security Council.

On Sunday, Nasrallah threatened Israel after the Beirut attack.

“The time when Israeli aircraft come and bombard parts of Lebanon is over,” he said in a televised speech.

“I say to the Israeli army along the border, from tonight be ready and wait for us,” he added. “What happened yesterday will not pass.”

Hizbollah, considered a terrorist organisation by Israel and the United States, is a major political actor in Lebanon and also a key government backer in war-torn Syria.

The latest incident also came after Israel on Saturday launched strikes in neighbouring Syria to prevent what it claimed was an Iranian attack on Israel.

Nasrallah on Sunday said two Hizbollah members were among those killed in the strike. They were laid to rest in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Monday, amid a large turnout of party supporters. </s> BEIRUT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2019) Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has called the incident around the two Israeli drones that crashed in southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday an attack on country's sovereignty.

Earlier in the day, media reported that two Israeli drones crashed near Hezbollah's headquarters in Beirut overnight, while one of them exploded in the air. The blast reportedly caused significant damage to the Hezbollah press service's building and left three people injured. According to other reports, one of the drones was shot down by the Hezbollah movement, while the other one was seized.

"Prime Minister Saad Hariri views the crash of two Israeli reconnaissance drones in southern suburbs of Beirut as an open aggression against Lebanon's sovereignty and violation of [UN Security Council] Resolution 1701," the statement issued by prime minister's press office read.

According to the statement, Hariri intends to review further actions with Lebanese President Michel Aoun and the parliament speaker, Nabih Berri.

"The aggression is represented by the repeated intrusion of the Israeli aircraft into the air space of Lebanon and their presence in the space over Beirut," Hariri said adding that Israel's actions threaten regional stability and may provoke a serious crisis.

The incident came hours after Israel attacked what it describes as Iranian forces in Syria southeast of Damascus. The Israeli military claimed that the operation was meant to foil a purported attack of Iranian combat drones against Israel. Tehran, meanwhile, refuted Israeli military's claim the Iranian forces were hit in the attack.

Israel considers Iran and Tehran-backed Hezbollah to be its main rivals in the region. Hezbollah operates a military wing that battled Israel during the latter's invasions of Lebanon. Its military wing is also currently active in Syria, where it is fighting on behalf of the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. </s> Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in a 17-second Hebrew-language YouTube video on Monday, vowing that Israel would continue to “defend its security by any means necessary”.

​“Iran is acting in a broad front to produce murderous terror attacks against Israel. Israel will continue to defend its security by any means necessary”, said Netanyahu.

He also emphatically called on the international community to take action against what he called the regional threat posed by Tehran and its proxies.

“I call on the international community to act immediately to ensure Iran stops these attacks”, the Israeli prime minister said.

Tensions have shot up recently, as Tel Aviv has carried out airstrikes that have targeted what it described as Iranian forces and "Shiite militia targets" in Syria.

Tensions have shot up recently, as Jerusalem carried out airstrikes that targeted what it described as Iranian forces and "Shiite militia targets" in Syria.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) stated on 24 August that the strikes were aimed at stopping a "pending, large-scale attack of multiple killer drones on Israel". 

A spate of airstrikes in Lebanon and Iraq have also been blamed on Jerusalem, with Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun saying that the attacks attributed to Israel were a “declaration of war”.

Aoun made the statement during a meeting with UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis.

“What happened resembles a declaration of war that entitles us to resort to our right to defend our sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity”, Aoun said, according to Lebanese news outlet Naharnet.

Aoun told Kubis that Israel was responsible for an early Monday morning attack on the Lebanese-Syrian border and a drone explosion in a suburb of Beirut the day before.

The drone incident followed Israel taking responsibility for an airstrike in Syria that killed two Hezbollah members, with the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah vowing to retaliate.

In Iraq, the Fatah Coalition called for the withdrawal of US troops from the country, saying on Monday that it holds the United States fully responsible for the reported Israeli strikes, “which we consider to be a declaration of war on Iraq and its people”.

The Times of Israel cites Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon as saying on Monday that some recent strikes in the region attributed to Israel “aren’t ours”.

“We’ve gone through a tense and critical 72 hours. The prime minister once remarked that every explosion in the Middle East is attributed to Israel.

 I want to tell you that there are also things being attributed to us that aren’t ours. Since I cannot say what was us and what wasn’t, I’m saying that there are things being attributed to us that aren’t ours”, said Kahlon, a member of the high-level security cabinet.

Over fears of retaliatory attacks, soldiers in northern Israel have been put on high alert.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday spoke to US Vice President Mike Pence, who said that the US backs Israel’s right to self-defence.

“Had a great conversation with Prime Minister @netanyahu this morning. The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself from imminent threats. Under President @realDonaldTrump, America will always stand with Israel!” Pence wrote on Twitter.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun accuses Israel of a "declaration of war", and asserts the right of the country to defend itself from aggression in response to Israeli strikes in the Beqaa Valley.