Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s Permanent Representative To the UN, condemned Israel’s invasion of Lebanon yesterday in very tough remarks to a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East. In the process, he laid bare Israel’s plot to provoke a war between the U.S. and Iran.
Nebenzia called for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, and the full implementation by both sides of UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. “We also decisively condemn the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah. It is detestable that more than 80 bombs, each weighing one ton, were dropped on a residential neighborhood in the Lebanese capital to kill him,” he said. “As a result, six high-rise buildings were destroyed. Under these consequences, how can this be considered a selective action? This political elimination is fraught with disastrous consequences for Lebanon and the Middle East as a whole. West Jerusalem could not help but understand that, nevertheless, it intentionally escalated the situation. Therefore, the Israeli side bears full responsibility for the following escalation and its consequences, including for the population of Israel.”
Nebenzia also blasted the U.S. for casting its veto in the Security Council five times: “For the good of its Middle East ally ... and since the beginning of July [the U.S. administration] has been intentionally pulling the wool over our eyes, touting its notorious ‘Biden Plan’ and its ‘quiet diplomacy’ to broker a deal between Hamas and Israel.”
Nebenzia went on to warn against the “dangerous illusion” that Israel plans to deal with the crisis it has created on its own: “It is becoming increasingly clear that the Israeli leadership is looking to trigger a direct conflict between its main regional adversary—Iran—and the United States and will spare no effort to do that. It is hard to say whether Washington understands this, but so far, this show has been going on following the ‘Israeli scripts.’ And if it reaches its finale, the conflict would escalate to an unimaginable level, threatening not only the Middle East, but the entire world. We are convinced that it is in our common interest to prevent such a scenario.”
The UN Security Council, Nebenzia said, has the tools in its tool kit for dealing with such a crisis, that is, using the powers of the Council to compel the warring parties to a settlement, beginning with a ceasefire in Gaza. “The only question is whether we have the political will,” he concluded. “We [Russia] have the will. Do you? We urge everyone to give an answer to this question as soon as possible!”
