Lebanon to file UN Security Council complaint against Israel

Rasa - Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil says the Arab country will lodge an “urgent complaint” with the United Nations Security Council against Israel over an airstrike conducted from the Lebanese airspace on a military facility in the western Syrian province of Hama.

News ID: 432292

Date: 09 September 2017 - 22:53

RNA - Bassil issued a directive to Lebanese Ambassador to the UN Nawaf Salam on Saturday, calling on him to take the measure “after Israeli authorities admitted to have carried out a missile attack against targets on Syrian territories from Lebanese airspace.”

The Syrian army said in a statement on September 7 that Israeli warplanes had fired a number of missiles at 2:42 a.m. local time (0042 GMT) from the Lebanese airspace against one of its military positions near the town of Masyaf, located approximately 40 kilometers west of the provincial capital city of Hama.

The army statement then warned about the “dangerous repercussions of this aggressive action to the security and stability of the region.”

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, later reported that the air raid had killed two people at the site and caused material damage.

The Syrian army operates a military facility north of Masyaf, which includes a training camp and a branch of the Scientific Studies and Research Center, according to an AFP report.

Israel violates Lebanon's airspace on an almost daily basis, claiming the flights serve surveillance purposes.

Lebanon's government, the Hezbollah resistance movement and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, have repeatedly condemned the overflights, saying they are in clear violation of UN Resolution 1701 and the country's sovereignty.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which brokered a ceasefire in the war of aggression Israel launched against Lebanon in 2006, calls on Tel Aviv to respect Beirut's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

In 2009, Lebanon filed a complaint with the United Nations, presenting over 7,000 documents pertaining to Israeli violations of Lebanese territory.

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