CAIRO – Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and Lebanon’s Abdallah Bou Habib have pressed for international action to implement resolutions of the UN General Assembly and Security Council to oblige Israel to stop its aggression on the occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon.
A binding resolution is needed to force Israel to halt its assaults, the two top diplomats said in a joint statement Monday.
They met in New York on the sidelines of the high-level segment of the 79th UN General Assembly.
The meeting took up the hazardous developments in the Middle East, with focus on Israel’s continued offensive on the Lebanese lands and war on Gaza, according to the statement.
The two foreign ministers condemned the attacks on Lebanon and called for respecting its sovereignty, the statement said.
Abdelatty said Lebanon’s security is integral to regional security. Bou Habib thanked Egypt for its support for Lebanon in the face of Israel’s aggression and threats of ground invasion.
They both agreed on the need for Israel to end its assaults and for key world players to act to prevent an expansion of confrontations that could lead to a large-scale regional conflict
Israel must honor its commitments in line with international law and international humanitarian law, as well as the four Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols that contain the most important rules limiting the barbarity of war, the foreign ministers said.
They stressed that a comprehensive ceasefire is the only solution to the current crisis in the Middle East, urging peaceful means to stop the escalation and solve pending issues between Israel and Lebanon in line with UN Security Council resolution no. 1701.
They also reiterated calls for resuming the two-state political process to establish an independent Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
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