WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th August, 2019) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is deeply concerned over tensions between Israel and Hezbollah and believes Lebanon's territorial integrity must be protected, spokeswoman Florencia Sotonino told reporters on Friday.
Lebanon accused Israel of being behind a drone strike on the office of the Hezbollah militant group near Beirut on Sunday. On Wednesday, Lebanese forces opened fire on Israeli drones near a village in the southern part of the country.
"The secretary general remains deeply concerned over heightened tensions and he reiterates the need to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon," Sotonino said.
Guterres appealed for all parties to cease violations of the 2006 UN Security Council Resolution that called for a cessation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel during a previous war, Sotonino added.
The statement followed a unanimous vote in the Security Council on Thursday to renew a 4-decade-old UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon for another year.
Thursday's vote approved a new resolution that condemned all violations of the Blue Line and called on Israel and Hezbollah to "respect the cessation of hostilities, to prevent any violation of the Blue Line and... to cooperate fully with" UN peacekeepers.
Israel says it has discovered and destroyed a series of cross-border Hezbollah infiltration tunnels.
