The UN Security Council will meet urgently on Wednesday 25 September to discuss the situation in Lebanon, where Israeli bombings killed more than 500 people on Monday, the Slovenian presidency of the Council announced late Tuesday. The meeting, requested by France, will take place on Wednesday at 6pm (midnight in Paris), in the presence of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Follow our live coverage.
Israeli Prime Minister promises new operations in Lebanon. Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that Israel would continue to strike Hezbollah in Lebanon, as cross-border exchanges of fire between the Israeli army and the Islamist movement continue. “We will continue to strike Hezbollah. And I say to the Lebanese people: our war is not against you, our war is against Hezbollah.”he said in a video released by his office. In front of the countries gathered for the UN General Assembly, the Israeli representation assured that no ground intervention in Lebanon was currently envisaged.
Joe Biden warns of ‘general war’ The American president also estimated that he was “now time” to finalize a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, during his address to the United Nations in New York. “A general war is in no one’s interest. Even with the escalation of the situation, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” he said.
Six dead in Israeli strike in Beirut, including senior Hezbollah official. Six people were killed in an Israeli raid on the southern suburbs of Beirut, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. In a statement, it also reported “15 injured” and evokes a balance sheet “preliminary”The Israeli army, for its part, claimed to have “eliminated” a senior official of the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah, Ibrahim Mohammed Kobeissi. She also struck in the night “dozens of targets” of the Islamist movement Hezbollah “in many areas of southern Lebanon”.
Hezbollah “cannot stand alone” against Israel, warns Iranian president. Massoud Pezeshkian said in an interview with the American channel CNN that his country will continue to support its ally. “Hezbollah cannot oppose alone a country that is defended, supported and supplied by Western countries, European countries and the United States (…) We must not allow Lebanon to become another Gaza,” he said.
France requests an emergency meeting of the Security Council. Paris called for an immediate halt to the strikes “led on both sides” of the UN demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon. The new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, has asked “that an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Lebanon be held this week”during the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Flights of a dozen companies suspended to Lebanon. Many airlines announced Tuesday that they were suspending flights to Beirut because of the Israeli bombings against Hezbollah. EgyptAir and Qatar Airways decided to suspend flights until at least Tuesday evening. Emirates, Flydubai and Etihad canceled flights to the Lebanese capital on Tuesday and Wednesday. Jordanian airlines suspended flights to Beirut until further notice. Air France and its low-cost subsidiary Transavia suspended flights to and from Beirut. “until October 1st inclusive”Only Middle East Airlines, a Lebanese company, continues to operate but all its flights from Beirut are full until the end of the week.
