Lebanon has announced plans to lodge a protest with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) over a recent Israeli military offensive in the south of the Arab country.
During a meeting of Lebanon's cabinet members on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Nassif Hitti denounced the Israeli aggression the day earlier and said Beirut will file a complaint against Tel Aviv to the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
Israel claimed on Monday that it had fired dozens of shells into Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms, which Tel Aviv has occupied since 1967, and also thwarted an effort by the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah’s fighters to “infiltrate” into the occupied territories.
However, the popular group adamantly dismissed the Israeli claim and said it was not involved in any clashes with the regime.
Hezbollah said in a statement that the regime has come up with the account to falsely claim a “victory” against the resistance and try to boost the morale of its forces.
“The government will file a complaint with the Security Council tomorrow to hold [Israel] and the international community accountable for what happened yesterday, as there is a clear [act of] aggression”, Hitti told reporters after the cabinet session.
“We adhere to the UN Resolution 1701 [issued by the UNSC in 2006] and Lebanon’s right to protect itself,” he added.
Earlier in the day, Lebanese President Michel Aoun described the Israeli aggression as a threat to stability in southern Lebanon.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab also slammed the Israeli violation of his country’s sovereignty and called it a “dangerous military escalation.”
The resistance movement has on several occasions said it reserves the right to give a proper answer to Israel's killing of its member Ali Kamel Mohsen, who was martyred during the latest Israeli aggression against Syria from the occupied Golan Heights last Monday.
Hezbollah had vowed in the past to retaliate for any of its members that were killed by Israeli forces in Syria. The resistance group fired a barrage of anti-tank missiles into the occupied territories in September last year after two of its members were martyred in an Israeli aggression near Damascus.