Lebanese Prime Minister Nagib Mikati, in Baabda, July 26, 2021. Photo Nabil Ismaïl
BEIRUT — Outgoing Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for international intervention to pressure Israel into halting its aggression against southern Lebanon, in a statement issued Tuesday. The statement comes one day after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an "immediate cease-fire" in Gaza for the remaining two weeks of Ramadan.
Mikati said the resolution was "a first step" in the process of ending the Israeli assault on Gaza, but that, as far as Lebanon is concerned, additional pressure will be needed to ensure cross-border fighting with Israel is also de-escalated. On Oct. 8, Hezbollah opened a "support front" on the Lebanese-Israeli border, with the stated intention to distract some of the Israeli army's resources away from its fighting with Hezbollah's Palestinian ally Hamas in Gaza.
He reiterated that "a political process still needs to be launched to put an end to the ongoing conflict and grant the Palestinians their rights."
On Monday, the UN Security Council in New York demanded an "immediate cease-fire" in the Palestinian enclave, a first after five and a half months of war between Hamas and Israel and three vetoes by the US on previous attempts by the Security Council to pass a resolution regarding a cessation of hostilities in Gaza. This time, the resolution — which passed with the support of 14 countries — was worded in collaboration with the US delegation to the UN so as to ensure it would not veto the proposal. An agreement was reached and the US abstained, marking a significant shift in Israeli-US relations, traditionally a seemingly unbreakable bond that has been tenuous for weeks now.