TEHRAN: Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday that its ally Hezbollah “cannot stand alone” against Israel which carried out its deadliest day of air strikes on Lebanon since 2006.
“Hebzollah cannot stand alone against a country that is being defended and supported and supplied by Western countries, by European countries and the United States,” Pezeshkian said in an interview with CNN translated from Farsi to English.
He called on the international community to “not allow Lebanon to become another Gaza,” in response to a question if Iran would use its influence with Hezbollah to urge restraint.
On Monday, nearly 500 people, including 35 children, were killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry.
The Israeli military said it had hit about 1,600 Hezbollah targets on Monday, killing a “large number” of militants, and had carried out more on Tuesday morning.
Iran called on the UN Security Council to “take immediate action” against the “insane” Israeli escalation.
“Iran will NOT remain indifferent,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X late Monday.
“We stand with the people of Lebanon and Palestine.”
The Israeli strikes came less than a week after coordinated sabotage attacks targeting Hezbollah’s communication devices killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000.
Iranian media blamed Israel for the apparent slide toward all-out war.
“The Zionist regime has pressed the all-out war button,” said the ultraconservative Javan newspaper, while its rival Kayhan asked: “Has the big war begun?“
Government daily Iran warned “the region is on the verge of a massive explosion.” Reformist newspaper Etemad said “peace in Lebanon is hanging by a thread.”
Pezeshkian, who has been in New York for the annual UN General Assembly, accused Israel of warmongering.
“We know better than anyone that if a larger war erupts in the Middle East, it will benefit no one globally,” Pezeshkian told journalists at a roundtable.
“It is Israel that seeks to create this wider conflict.”
He said Iran had “never started a war in the last 100 years” and was “not looking to cause insecurity.”
But he insisted that Iran “will never allow a country to force us into something and threaten our security and territorial integrity.”
Iran president says Hezbollah ‘cannot stand alone’ against Israel
https://arab.news/ywgtf
Iran president says Hezbollah ‘cannot stand alone’ against Israel
- He called on the international community to “not allow Lebanon to become another Gaza”
‘Tens of thousands’ have fled strikes in Lebanon: UN
- Israeli air strikes killed at least 492 people on Monday, including 35 children
GENEVA: The United Nations said Tuesday that tens of thousands of people had fled their homes in Lebanon since Monday, amid Israeli strikes.
“We are gravely concerned about the serious escalation in the attacks that we saw yesterday,” UN refugee agency spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told reporters in Geneva.
“Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes yesterday and overnight, and the numbers continue to grow,” he said.
Israeli air strikes killed at least 492 people on Monday, including 35 children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, marking the deadliest bombardment in nearly two decades.
Longtime foes Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in near-daily cross-border exchanges of fire since Palestinian militant group Hamas staged an unprecedented attack on Israel last October 7.
Monday’s bombardment of Lebanon was by far the largest, not just in the past year, but since the war between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in the summer of 2006.
“This is a region that has already been devastated by war and a country that knows suffering all too well,” Saltmarsh said.
“The toll on civilians is unacceptable.”
Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN rights office, also said the agency was “extremely alarmed by the sharp escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
Shamdasani called on “all parties to immediately cease the violence and to ensure the protection of civilians.”
The UN children’s agency meanwhile decried the impact on young people in Lebanon.
“We are warning today that any further escalation in this conflict will be absolutely catastrophic for all children in Lebanon,” said Ettie Higgins, UNICEF Deputy Representative in Lebanon, speaking via video link from Beirut.
“Yesterday was Lebanon’s worst day in 18 years. This violence has to stop immediately, or the consequences will be unconscionable.”
Kremlin says Israeli strikes on Lebanon risk destabilizing the Middle East
MOSCOW: The Kremlin warned on Tuesday that Israeli strikes on Lebanon had the potential to destabilize the Middle East and said it was very concerned by the evolving situation.
Israel struck Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Iran-backed group attacked military facilities in northern Israel on Tuesday, increasing fears of a full-blown conflict after Lebanon suffered its deadliest day in decades.
UN rights chief calls for diplomatic efforts to address Lebanon crisis
GENEVA: The UN human rights chief on Tuesday called on anyone with influence in the Middle East or elsewhere to seek to avert any further escalation in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, voicing alarm at the sharp escalation.
“UN High Commissioner Volker Türk calls on all States and actors with influence in the region and beyond to avert further escalation and do everything they can to ensure full respect for international law,” a spokesperson for Turk said at a Geneva press briefing.
At the same press briefing, a WHO official in Lebanon Abdinasir Abubakar said that some hospitals in Lebanon were overwhelmed by the thousands of wounded people arriving, many with injuries to their eyes and faces.
Arab League calls for end to Gaza war, establishment of Palestinian state
- Israel’s wars undermine global stability, says Hossam Zaki
- UN ‘paralysis’ must end, more proactive measures needed
Washington: The UN should be more proactive in its efforts to end conflicts and wars ravaging the Middle East because global stability was at stake, said a senior Arab League official at the world body’s Summit of the Future in New York on Monday.
Assistant Secretary-General Hossam Zaki, delivering the league’s position at the summit held on Sept. 22 and 23, said the world was now at a dangerous “crossroads.”
The Summit of the Future is an annual meeting of UN member states that adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015.
Zaki was speaking in the wake of Israel launching airstrikes on targets in southern Lebanon and Beirut killing at least 500 people and injuring more than 2,000, according to the country’s Ministry of Health.
Zaki said that with no end in sight to Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the world’s ability to end the conflict decreases.
Since Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7 last year, Israeli forces have killed more than 41,000 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children.
Israel has also destroyed the majority of homes and civilian infrastructure throughout Gaza.
Zaki said the UN has failed to act since Israel intensified its bombardment.
“For a whole year, we in the Arab region had felt this unfortunate paralysis, as months had passed by before the UN Security Council was able to pass a resolution last June calling for (a) ceasefire and the end of the Israeli aggression on Gaza,” he said.
“This paralysis that effected the UN system has caused deep frustrations among many member states,” he added.
He accused the international community of having double standards with regard to Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
“Disgraceful silence regarding what’s happening in Gaza while massive support to nations in conflict elsewhere.”
While Zaki stressed the league’s support for the UN system, he expressed dismay at the world body’s inability to recognize Palestine as a full member state.
The fact that 149 member states recognize Palestine constitute an internal consensus that the UN has to take into consideration, he added.
He said “the current UN structure stands against the international consensus of establishing an independent Palestinian state.”
Australian woman detained in Turkey over alleged links to Kurdish insurgents
ISTANBUL: An Australian women was arrested in Turkey over her alleged links to a Kurdish militant group in a joint operation by anti-terrorist police and intelligence officers, Turkish media said.
Cigdem Aslan, 51, was detained at Istanbul airport after an investigation found she was “actively involved in the Australian structure of the terrorist organization,” according to a report by the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Anadolu, citing unnamed security sources, did not specify the nature of her alleged involvement with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. She was brought before a court and sent to prison awaiting trial.
The PKK has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. The conflict has led to tens of thousands of deaths and the group is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, the European Union and Australia.
The Anadolu report said she was arrested as she waited to board a plane for Australia and had been followed by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, or MIT. It did not specify when she was initially detained.
Anadolu said Saturday that Aslan had had contact with “high-level” PKK members. The agency’s report included photographs purportedly showing Aslan posing in front of a PKK flag and portrait of the group’s imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.
According to the English-language Daily Sabah newspaper, Aslan was traveling under a passport in the name of Lenna Aslan. It said she worked as the co-chair of a “PKK-linked association in Australia and was active in events organized by a Melbourne-based center serving as a mouthpiece of the terrorist group.”
The newspaper said she had been involved in protests against Turkey’s cross-border operations against the PKK. Turkish troops are involved in an ongoing campaign against the PKK in northern Iraq and Ankara frequently carries out airstrikes in northern Syria against an associated group known as the People’s Defense Units, or YPG.
Australian media reported that Aslan is listed as a bilingual health educator by the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health in Melbourne.
Its website says she is a single mother with two daughters and is passionate about “human and women’s rights, community volunteering and advocating for minorities."
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Tuesday it was “providing consular assistance to an Australian woman detained in Turkey.”
