30/09/2024

MONDAY | SEP 30, 2024 9 Wang touts role as peacemaker NEW YORK: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi sought to burnish his country’s credentials as a global peacemaker at the UN General Assembly on Saturday, calling for a cessation of fighting in the Middle East and touting Beijing’s diplomatic efforts on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Wang spoke after Israel killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday. “The question of Palestine is the biggest wound to human conscience. As we speak, the conflict in Gaza is still going on, causing more casualties with each passing day. Fighting has started in Lebanon again, but might cannot replace justice,”Wang said. “There must not be any delay in reaching a comprehensive ceasefire, and the fundamental way out lies in the two-state solution.” China has stepped up its involvement in various crises, seeking to rival Washington’s traditional role as a global mediator. In July, it hosted talks between Palestinian rivals including Hamas and Fatah in Beijing. President Xi Jinping helped broker a deal last year to end a diplomatic rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran, leaving the US on the sidelines. “Peace is the most precious thing in our world today,”Wang said at the UN. Beijing’s most significant peace effort is a proposal for talks to end the war in Ukraine. China and Brazil have proposed new talks involving Kyiv and Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he wanted to know concretely how China and Brazil’s initiative will work toward peace, and said it is important their proposals are “underpinned by the realities” of the conflict. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that China promoting its peace efforts on Ukraine while also helping Moscow to produce missiles, rockets, armoured vehicles and munitions “doesn’t add up”. – Reuters

Israel pounds Hezbollah sites after killing its leader

o Families camp out in Beirut streets

conflict could spin out of control, potentially drawing in Iran as well as the United States, Israel’s closest ally. Hezbollah and Israel have been fighting in parallel with Israel’s war in Gaza. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 33 people had been killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Saturday, bringing the total toll since hostilities broke out on Oct 8 last year to more than 1,670, including 104 children. In Beirut, displaced families spent the night on the benches at Zaitunay Bay, a string of restaurants and cafes on Beirut’s waterfront where private security usually shoos away any loiterers. Yesterday, families with nothing more than a duffle bag of clothes had rolled out mats to sleep on and poured tea for themselves. “You won’t be able to destroy us, whatever you do, however much you bomb, however much you displace people – we will stay here. We won’t leave. This is our country and we’re staying,” said Francoise Azori, a Beirut resident jogging through the area. The UN World Food Programme said in a statement it had launched an emergency operation to provide food for up to a million people affected by the conflict in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday Nasrallah’s killing was a necessary step toward “changing the balance of power in the region”. “Nasrallah was not a terrorist, he was the terrorist,” Netanyahu said in a statement, warning of challenging days ahead.

Israel said it killed senior Hezbollah official Ali Karaki and other commanders along with Nasrallah. US President Joe Biden described Nasrallah’s death as a measure of justice for what he called his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese, and said the US fully supported Israel’s right to self-defence. But when asked if an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon was inevitable, Biden said on Saturday: “It’s time for a ceasefire.” Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was moved to a secure location in Iran after Nasrallah’s killing, sources told Reuters. Khamenei said Nasrallah’s death would be avenged and his path in fighting Israel would be pursued by other groups. Tehran called for a UN Security Council meeting on Israel’s actions in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region, warning against any attacks on its diplomatic facilities and representatives. A senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, deputy commander Abbas Nilforoushan, was also killed in Friday’s attacks. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel’s war was not with the Lebanese people. He held talks late on Saturday about possibly expanding Israel’s military offensive on its northern front, his office said. Hezbollah said it would cease fire only when Israel’s Gaza offensive ends. – Reuters

BEIRUT: Israel struck multiple targets in Lebanon yesterday, pressing Hezbollah with more attacks after it struck a huge blow by killing the group’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. The Israeli military said the air force had “struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including launchers that were aimed toward Israeli territory, structures in which weapons were stored and additional Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure”. The navy had intercepted a projectile approaching from the Red Sea and another eight projectiles coming from Lebanon had fallen in open areas, it said in a statement. Nasrallah was killed in an air attack on Friday on the group’s headquarters in Beirut. Israel announced his killing on Saturday and Hezbollah later confirmed his death. In its announcement, Hezbollah said it would keep fighting Israel and has continued to fire rockets at it. Nasrallah’s death capped a traumatic fortnight for Hezbollah, starting with the detonation of thousands of communications devices used by its members. Israel was widely assumed to have carried out that action but has not confirmed or denied it did. The escalation has increased fears the