Lebanon’s UN Envoy Slams ‘Israeli’ Claims on ‘Port of Hezbollah’

By Staff, Agencies

Lebanese ambassador to the UN Amal Mudallali blasted on Tuesday the Zionist entity’s claims at the Security Council that the Port of Beirut was being used to smuggle Hezbollah weapons, stressing that the accusations were a direct threat to peace and civilian infrastructure.

“Before I read my prepared statement, I would like to address the accusations that the ‘Israeli’ ambassador directed against Lebanon, taking into account ‘Israel’s’ history of invasions of Lebanon,” Mudallali told an open debate of the Security Council in New York. “The Lebanese see these accusations as direct threats to their peace and civilian infrastructure.”

She added: “If the ‘Israeli’ ambassador is using these statements to divert attention from the miserable situation that their occupation has created for the Palestinians, this is not new.”

“But if he is using them to prepare the ground and the international community for an attack on Lebanon’s civilian port and airport and its infrastructure as they did in 2006, this council should not stay silent and should uphold its responsibility to prevent ‘Israel’ from launching another war on Lebanon.”

Mudallali was speaking after the Zionist ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, claimed that his occupation entity had found that Iran and its Al-Quds Force had begun to advance the exploitation of civilian maritime channels, “and specifically the Port of Beirut.”

Danon alleged that “the Port of Beirut is now the Port of Hezbollah and ... [it is] harder and harder to tell where Beirut ends and Tehran begins.”

Although Mudallali’s speech focused in large part on the Palestinian cause, she noted that Lebanon was concerned and troubled by the ‘Israeli’ policy “to alter the legal, physical and demographic status of the occupied Golan Heights.”

She cited daily ‘Israeli’ violations of Lebanese territory by land, air and sea as another threat to stability in the region.

“This month has already witnessed tens of violations, especially by warplanes and military boats, terrifying the population,” she said.

Mudallali pointed to continued illegal ‘Israeli’ construction on occupied Lebanese lands on the southern border, “in what are called reservation points.”

“These violations are a source of tension and instability and lead to increased fragility along the border and must end,” Mudallali told the Security Council.