7 Sep 2019; MEMO: Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, warned on Friday that Israel would bear the consequences of any attack on his country, declaring that “any attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country will be met with legitimate self-defence, and Israel will bear all of its resulting consequences.”
This occurred during Aoun’s meeting at Baabda Palace, east of Beirut, with UN secretary-general’s representative in Lebanon, Jan Kubis, according to a statement released by the Lebanese presidency.
“Aoun told Kubis that the recent Israeli attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut represents its violation of the Rules of Engagement, reached after the issuance of UN Security Council Resolution 1701,” the statement explains.
Resolution 1701 was issued on 11 August 2006, and unanimously approved by the Government of Lebanon. The Rules of Engagement had then been set forward after the war in July of the same year.
For his part, Kubis stated that “the Lebanese army deployed alongside the international forces, is carrying out its full duty in implementation of the decisions of the political authority and the Supreme Council for Defence.”
Since 25 August, Lebanon has been witnessing escalating security tensions, with the crash of two Israeli drones in the southern suburb of Beirut, one of which exploded. In addition, one of Hezbollah’s sites in the Syrian town of Aqraba, near the capital of Damascus, was targeted by an Israeli bombing, killing two of the movement’s soldiers.
Aoun, Hezbollah’s political ally, considered the crash of the two drones, as a “declaration of war” on Lebanon.
Hezbollah carried out an operation in the border area of Avivim, where it targeted with anti-tank missiles an Israeli army base and a military vehicle.
Hezbollah’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, confirms that the confrontation is over, but it has opened a “new phase” in which the movement would target Israeli drones that invade Lebanese airspace.
