US calls for restraint from Middle East parties during UN Security Council meeting

September 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –

US Deputy Representative to the UN Robert Wood has called for restraint from parties in the Middle East during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the latest explosions of thousands of communication devices in Lebanon.

“It is imperative that even as new facts emerge regarding the latest incidents, in which, I repeat, the United States played no role, all parties refrain from any action that could plunge the region into a devastating war,” he said.

The US representative also urged the parties to “comply with humanitarian law” and to adopt “all necessary measures” to “minimize harm to civilians,” especially in “densely populated” areas.

Each member of the Security Council, he said, “has a responsibility to help the people of Lebanon avoid further tragedies,” as well as to “support diplomatic efforts” to “restore calm” and “pressure Iran to cease its destabilizing and dangerous use of Hezbollah to undermine regional security.”

Wood stressed that a major conflict in the Middle East was “neither desirable nor inevitable.” He also explained that for the past eleven months the Lebanese population had suffered the “devastating consequences” of hostilities.

In this regard, he said that more than 100,000 Lebanese and more than 65,000 Israelis have been displaced by the crossfire between the parties. “Civilians on both sides of the ‘blue line’ have seen their homes destroyed and their fields and orchards burned,” he told the Council.

“Hezbollah, which receives extensive training, weapons and funding from Iran, has carried out these actions in solidarity with Hamas, not with Lebanon or the Lebanese people,” he said, adding that “Israel has the right to defend itself” from the militia.

In this regard, he accused Tehran of consistently supplying Hezbollah with weapons and personnel “in flagrant disregard and defiance of the call for disarmament contained in United Nations resolutions 1559 and 1701” and the “binding arms embargo.”

Wood said the United States believes a diplomatic resolution to the conflict is the only way to create the conditions for displaced Lebanese and Israeli civilians to return home safely.

More than thirty people were killed between Tuesday and Wednesday when hundreds of communication devices linked to the Hezbollah party-militia exploded, the target of an apparent Israeli attack. Initial investigations suggest the devices were carrying a hidden explosive charge.

The indiscriminate nature of this attack, which was evident in explosions in places outside the military sphere or with large crowds, has been criticised by the UN. The secretary general of the organisation, António Guterres, has urged not to use civilian objects as weapons.