Berri Threatens to Suspend Naqoura Tripartite Meetings if Israeli Violations Continue
Speaker Nabih Berri threatened on Monday to suspend the tripartite meetings held at al-Naqoura crossing between the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon and senior Lebanese and Israeli officials if the Jewish state continues violating the country's sovereignty.
“Those who are keen to safeguard Lebanon's sovereignty and independence and those who are in a hurry to get rid of the resistance should take into consideration first the Israeli violations,” Berri said in remarks published in As Safir newspaper.
He described the tripartite meetings as “useless,” as long as the Israeli violations continue.
He pointed out that the “problem is in the Jewish state's aggression and not the resistance.”
Berri, who revealed a new Israeli violation on Sunday, told the newspaper that “the Israeli army blatantly crossed the border with Lebanon and tampered with the area while the international forces stood by.”
An Israeli army infantry force crossed on Sunday the Blue Line in the al-Labbouneh border area and uprooted trees thus exposing a Lebanese army checkpoint.
The unit also lifted a cement block that belongs to the Lebanese army.
The Speaker considered that the ongoing violations require a swift action by the government, in particular, the foreign ministry, calling for filing a complaint against Israel to the U.N. Security Council.
For his part, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil told As Safir daily that all Israeli violations are condemned, noting that “filing a complaint against Israel is a self-evident.”
However, he said that the ministry needs the army to provide it with all the developments and the details concerning the violation in order to document it.
Bassil expressed regret over “the routine process in filing complaints against Israel,” noting that the government shouldn't “get used to this classical kind of reaction.”
“It's a shame that the Israeli violations are accumulating and we are not able to stop them.”
The minister told the newspaper that the defense strategy should highlight ways to confront the Israeli violations, adding that it will create a balance of power and impose calm, stability and peace at a later stage.
Lebanon's southern border has continuously witnessed violations carried out by Israel.
Israel routinely sends F-16 fighter planes over Lebanon, in violation of a U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. The Israeli planes have often broken the sound barrier over Beirut and other places as a show of strength, most recently after the drone incident.
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