World leaders gathered at the United Nations on Tuesday to call on Israel to avoid a full-scale war in Lebanon, and the organisation’s head warned that the situation had reached “peril”.
The UN General Assembly, a high point in the international diplomatic calendar, is meeting at a time when Lebanese officials have said 558 people – including 50 children – have been killed in Israeli attacks.
“Full-scale war is in no one’s interest. Even though the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” US President Joe Biden said in his farewell address to the global body.
“Indeed, it is the only path to lasting security that residents of both countries are allowed to return safely to their homes across the border,” Biden said ahead of an emergency U.N. Security Council session on Lebanon on Wednesday.
Biden’s comments disappointed Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, who said they were “not promising” and “won’t solve the Lebanese problem,” as he estimates the number of people displaced by Israeli attacks has possibly risen to half a million.
“We should all be concerned by this growing tension. Lebanon is on the brink of crisis,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in opening the conference.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said his country was “not interested” in a ground invasion of Lebanon.
He said, “We do not want to send our boys to fight in a foreign country.”
– ‘End this war’ –
It is unclear what progress can be made to calm the situation in Lebanon, with ceasefire efforts in Gaza – which Israel has been attacking relentlessly since October 2023 – yielding no results.
Biden on Tuesday again pushed for an elusive ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, telling the global body it was time to “end this war.”
Mediator Qatar accused Israel of obstructing Gaza ceasefire talks, and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said there were “no Israeli partners for peace” under Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
But he added, “We will continue our mediation efforts to resolve the disputes peacefully.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of “dragging the entire region into war”.
“It is not only children who are dying in Gaza, but also the United Nations system,” Erdogan said in a fiery speech.
Guterres warned of “the possibility of Lebanon turning into another Gaza” and described the situation in the Palestinian territory as an “unending nightmare”.
European Council President Charles Michel said Israel has a right to exist and defend itself, but it must do so without imposing “collective punishment” on civilians living in areas targeted by its forces.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian – who supports Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza – condemned the UN’s “pointless and incomprehensible” inaction against Israel.
– ‘Drama of hypocrisy’ –
Responding to Israeli criticism, Danon called the General Assembly debate an “annual drama of hypocrisy”.
“When the UN Secretary-General speaks about the release of our hostages, the UN Assembly falls silent, but when he speaks about the suffering in Gaza, he receives thunderous applause,” Danon said.
Since last year’s annual meeting, which was overshadowed by Sudan’s civil war and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the world has faced an explosion of crises.
An attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Israel on October 7 killed 1,205 people and resulted in a military crackdown in Gaza that officials say has killed at least 41,467 people.
The militants also took 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still in Gaza, 33 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Violence has flared on multiple fronts across the Middle East since the crisis began, and the conflict has exposed deep divisions within the United Nations.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas took his seat on Tuesday with the Palestinian delegation, which was ranked alphabetically for the first time since it was granted elevated privileges in May.
At the forum on Tuesday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II rejected the possibility of Israel forcibly displacing Palestinians in his country, saying it would be a “war crime.”
The issue of Ukraine was also on the agenda on Tuesday, when President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a UN Security Council meeting on the Russian aggression.
“Russia can only be forced to make peace, and that is what is needed — to force Russia to make peace,” Zelenskyy said.
Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “war has failed in its original objective. He aimed to destroy Ukraine, but Ukraine is still free.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
