Bassil Files Complaint to U.N. Security Council against 'Blatant' Israeli Breaches

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil instructed the permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations in New York to file an urgent complaint to the U.N. Security Council on Israel's “blatant” security breaches against Lebanon's sovereignty and the U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, the state-run National News Agency reported on Saturday.

Israeli forces crossed on May 11 the Blue Line in the al-Labbouneh border area, uprooted trees and lifted cement blocks that belong to the Lebanese army.

Bassil had also instructed the Permanent Representative in New York, Ambassador Nawaf Salam, to file two other complaints on Israeli breaches. The first took place on May 1 near the southern town of Hula where Israeli forces violated the Blue Line, and the second on May 9 when Israeli forces tried to kidnap three Lebanese citizens in an outlying area of Shebaa.

An Israeli army infantry force crossed last Sunday the Blue Line in the al-Labbouneh border area and uprooted trees thus exposing a Lebanese army checkpoint.

The NNA later said that the Israeli navy violated Lebanese territorial waters off Ras al-Naqoura.

It said that the gunboats pushed a line of buoys 20 meters into Lebanese territorial waters.

Lebanon's southern border has continuously witnessed violations carried out by Israel.

Israel routinely sends F-16 fighter planes over Lebanon, in violation of a resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war.

D.A.

M.T.