AL chief: Arabs will defend Lebanon against Israel

Arab League (AL) Secretary General Amr Moussa says that Arab countries will stand by Lebanon, should it be attacked by Israel.

“If a new attack or aggression is in the process of being prepared, they (Israel) will not get away with it easily,” Moussa said after meeting with the Lebanese Foreign Minister Ali Shami in Beirut on Wednesday.

“We learned the lessons of 2006, and the Arab position is to stand by Lebanon,” AFP quoted Moussa as saying.

Moussa, who was wrapping up a two-day visit to Beirut, was speaking amid growing fears in Lebanon that Israel might again attack the country.

Several Israeli officials have recently stepped up their war rhetoric against other regional countries including Lebanon.

Yossi Peled, an Israeli cabinet minister and a former army general who has experienced the conflict on the northern border, said on Saturday, January 23, that another confrontation with Hezbollah was almost inevitable but he could not say when it would happen.

The minister without portfolio said that according to his “estimation, understanding and knowledge,” it was “almost clear” to him that another conflict on the border with Lebanon was imminent.

“It does not necessary have to be between us and Hezbollah, other elements may be involved in this,” Peled said.

The AL chief, however, said that the verbal aggression was not the only source of concern.

“There are not just threats, but thousands of violations of the border zone and of south Lebanon, which demonstrate that the situation is complex and tense,” Moussa said.

Israeli warplanes violate Lebanese airspace, conducting overflights on a regular basis. Such breaches are in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 33-day Israeli war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in the summer of 2006.

More than 1,200 — mostly Lebanese civilians — were killed as a result of the invasion.