LEBANON DENIES NETANYAHU MISSILE CLAIMS
▶ Foreign Minister says Israeli PM is seeking to justify an attack on Beirut
Lebanon’s Foreign Minister, Gebran Bassil, has denied there are Hezbollah missile sites near Beirut airport, in response to claims made by Israel at the UN General Assembly.
The minister, whose Christian Free Patriotic Movement has been loosely aligned with Hezbollah, led dozens of ambassadors on a tour of the area close to the airport to discredit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claims.
Mr Bassil accused Israel of seeking to “justify another aggression” on Lebanon on the basis of “false and ignorant claims that will impact the stability of the region”.
“We refuse to have missile sites near the airport, but other countries must also help us stop Israel’s terrorism, and this is the responsibility of the UN,” he said.
Ambassadors from Saudi, Kuwait, UK and Russia were among the diplomats who were on Mr Bassil’s tour. The US ambassador to Lebanon, Elizabeth Richard, was absent.
Last week at the UN General Assembly in New York, Mr Netanyahu said Israel had evidence that Iran was helping Hezbollah to provide precision-guided accuracy for its missiles.
The Israeli premier said that Iran had been directing Hezbollah in Lebanon “to build secret sites to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision-guided missiles that can target deep inside Israel within an accuracy of 10 metres”.
Mr Netanyahu claimed that Hezbollah had three missile sites near the airport – one in Ouzai, another under the Ahed Stadium and a third next to the airport.
“Look at this, next to the facility there is a soccer field,” Mr Netanyahu said.
“I have a message to Hezbollah: Israel knows what you are doing and where you’re doing it and it will not let you get away with it.”
Mr Bassil countered the claims by saying that Lebanon would not accept Israel’s misuse of the UN as a platform to attack his country.
“Lebanon demands Israel ceases this madness. We will no longer be the victim of some regional deal,” he said.
The Israeli military released footage and photos shortly after Mr Netanyahu’s speech.
The video refers to a “Missile Accuracy Project” that Israel says Hezbollah has tried to transfer “to the heart of the city of Beirut”.
The Israeli military said placing the facilities close to Beirut international airport was
“knowingly jeopardising the Lebanese civilian population”.
In response to Israel’s allegations, Mohammed Fanish, a Lebanese official representing Hezbollah in parliament, said that the country would resist Israel’s aggression.
“Leave Netanyahu with his lies and illusions,” Mr Fanish told the Lebanese News Agency. “We will suffice with the fact the resistance has its power, as [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah pointed out, and we will stand to every Israeli aggression in Lebanon.”
Israel has targeted Hezbollah positions several times in Syria, where the group is fighting in support of the Syrian government in the civil war against rebels and extremists.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Bassil held talks with Austria’s Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl about the return of Syrian refugees, stabilisation and reconstruction in Syria.
Ms Kneissl urged the international community to seize “a new dynamic” developing in Syria, which has been mired in civil war for more than seven years.
She said Austria would help those willing to return, as it did with Bosnian refugees after the end of the war in the 1990s.
Mr Bassil said that Lebanon, which hosts more than a million Syrian refugees, was working to ensure their “fast, secure, honourable and sustainable” return.
“Security now prevails” in most of Syria, making it possible for refugees to return, he said.