Lebanon on ‘brink’ amid Israel’s most intense strikes in years, UN chief warns

The UN chief has warned world leaders that Lebanon is on the brink as violence rages with Israel’s airstrikes having forced tens of thousands from their homes since Monday.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was addressing the 79th UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

He said the world leaders “should all be alarmed by the escalation. Lebanon is at the brink.”

Guterres warned against “the possibility of transforming Lebanon (into) another Gaza.”

In Gaza, Israel has massacred over 41,460 Palestinians, displacing around 1.9 million people – nine in 10 – since October 2023.

On Monday, the regime’s military carried out over 330 raids in more than 117 Lebanese towns and cities, particularly in the south and Beqaa regions. At least 558 people, including 50 children, have been killed.

“Gaza is a nonstop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it. Look no further than Lebanon,” Guterres said.

Without mentioning Israel by name, the UN chief slammed regimes who feel they are “entitled to a get out of jail free card” to wage wars against others.

“They can invade another country, lay waste to whole societies, or utterly disregard the welfare of their own people. And nothing will happen.”

“The level of impunity in the world is politically indefensible and morally intolerable,” Guterres warned.

Tens of thousands displaced in Lebanon

Meanwhile, UN refugee agency spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh raised the alarm over the number of civilians displaced in Lebanon since Monday.

“We are gravely concerned about the serious escalation in the attacks that we saw yesterday.”

“Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes yesterday and overnight and the numbers continue to grow.”

Israeli military 'deliberately' denies civilians enough time to escape bombing areas: Euro-Med

An international human rights organization says Israel intentionally leaves civilians both in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon with insufficient time to flee from bombed areas.

As world leaders gathered in Manhattan for the annual General Assembly, UN Security Council member France called for an emergency meeting on the situation.

The European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said that "we are almost in a full-fledged war," and the United States, Israel's staunch ally, warned the regime’s leaders against a full-blown ground invasion of Lebanon.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has called for an urgent meeting of Arab leaders on the sidelines of the event over Israel’s airstrikes on Lebanon.

Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group think tank said he expected many leaders to "warn that the UN will become irrelevant globally if it cannot help make peace." 

More than 100 heads of state and government are scheduled to speak during the grand diplomatic gathering, which will run until September 30.

"This may be an opportunity for Western and Arab diplomats to have some quiet conversations with the Iranians about the need to stop the regional situation spinning out of control," Gowan said.

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor warned earlier that the regime’s military's intentionally leaves civilians both in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon with insufficient time to flee from bombed areas.

Other speakers on the opening day of the General Assembly warned the international community about Israel’s psychopathic behavior.

Erdogan: UN system dying in Gaza

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said Israel has turned Gaza into “the world's largest children's and women's cemetery.”

Erdogan also criticized the UN for inaction on Israel’s campaign of genocide in Gaza.

“Not only children but also the UN system is dying in Gaza... The truth, the values that the West claims to defend are dying.”

The Turkish president warned that Israel is dragging the entire region into war, calling on the UN Security Council to put a stop to Israel’s “cruelty” and “barbarianism” in Gaza.

Jordan’s king: Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinians ‘war crime’

King Abdullah of Jordan ruled out the possibility of his country becoming an “alternative homeland” for the Palestinians.

“The idea of Jordan as an alternative homeland (for Palestinians)... will never happen,” he told the UN General Assembly. The kingdom, he said, “will never accept the forced displacement of Palestinians, which is a war crime.”

Israel’s authorities have repeatedly suggested that, instead of an independent state, Palestinians should accept Jordan as their homeland. Jordan borders the occupied West Bank and hosts a large number of Palestinian refugees.

The leader of Jordan used his speech to urge the international community to join “a massive relief effort to deliver food, clean water, medicine and other vital supplies” to the besieged Gaza Strip, where Israel has generated “unprecedented suffering.”

Biden defends Israel in last UN speech

In his last speech as the president of the United Sates before the Assembly, President Joe Biden, a self-proclaimed Zionist, said the Israeli regime maintains the right to war in Gaza.

“Any country, any country, would have the right responsibility to ensure that such an attack could never happen again,” Biden said, referring to Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against Israel on October 7, 2023.

Biden claimed he is “determined to prevent a wider war that engulfs the entire region.”

“Full-scale war is not in anyone's interest,” he said. "Even though the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible.”

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