UN urges Israel-Lebanon restraint

Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah fighters will respond in the event of any future Israeli aggression [AFP]




Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/20108444254792751.html


The United Nations has called on Israel and Lebanon to exercise "maximum restraint" after troops from both sides engaged in a deadly clash along the tense border on Tuesday.

"Our immediate priority at this time is to restore calm in the area," Neeraj Singh, a spokesman for UNIFIL, the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, said.

"UNIFIL peacekeepers are in the area and are trying to ascertain the circumstances of the incident and any possible casualties," Singh said.

Tuesday's border clash left at least two Lebanese soldiers and one Israeli soldier dead. A Lebanese journalist was also killed.

The incident exacerbated tensions on the already tense border.

Tension in the region has been mounting in recent months following reports that the Lebanese group Hezbollah was stockpiling weapons in preparation for a new war.

Hezbollah warning

Following the border skirmish, Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, warned Israel against any future aggression.

"We told our militants to hold back, not to do anything," Nasrallah said in a speech on Tuesday that was transmitted by video link to thousands of supporters massed in Hezbollah's stronghold in Beirut's southern suburbs.

"From now on, if the army is attacked in any area where the resistance [Hezbollah] has a presence or a say, we will not stand by idly. We will cut off the Israeli hand that reaches out to [attack] the Lebanese army," he said.

The clashes erupted after Israeli soldiers reportedly attempted to uproot a tree near the villages of Adaisseh and Kuferkilla on the Lebanese side of the border.

"The Israelis fired four rockets that fell near a Lebanese army position in the village of Adaisseh and the Lebanese army fired back," a Lebanese security official in the area said.

Israeli troops returned to the area on Wednesday in order to complete their interrupted task, and finally uprooted the tree, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

Saad al-Hariri, the Lebanese prime minister, called Tuesday's raid a "violation of Lebanese sovereignty and demands".

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from the border, said that the streets in the area were empty following the exchange of fire.


"The border has been closed amid the tensions, but observers and analysts, and some representatives of UNIFIL believe this will remain an isolated incident," our correspondent said.

Michel Sleiman, the Lebanese president meanwhile, issued his own statement denouncing the clash as a violation of UN resolution 1701. That resolution ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, and called for both Israel and Lebanon to respect the Blue Line, the UN-administered border between the two countries.

Sleiman also called on the Lebanese army to "confront any Israeli aggression, whatever the sacrifices".

'Misunderstanding'

General Gadi Eisenkot, the head of Israel's northern command, predicted the clashes were a "one-time event".

Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, said Israel "holds the Lebanese government responsible" for the incident, and asked the Israeli envoy to the UN to file a complaint.

Israeli security sources said that Israeli army engineers came under fire from Lebanese soldiers while working along the frontier and the troops shot back.

Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, said "the overall picture that seems to be emerging from Israeli television reports is that the whole incident seems to have started over some misunderstanding".

"There was some kind of Israeli incursion perceived ... to have crossed over into Lebanese territory" which precipitated the exchange of fire, Rowland said.

Israeli TV has reported that Hezbollah was not involved in the skirmish.