Security Council to Discuss Israeli Violations Next Week

The UN Security Council meets on April 14, 2018, at the UN Headquarters in New York. (AFP/Hector Retamal)
The UN Security Council meets on April 14, 2018, at the UN Headquarters in New York. (AFP/Hector Retamal)
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Security Council to Discuss Israeli Violations Next Week

The UN Security Council meets on April 14, 2018, at the UN Headquarters in New York. (AFP/Hector Retamal)
The UN Security Council meets on April 14, 2018, at the UN Headquarters in New York. (AFP/Hector Retamal)

Ambassador Riyad Mansour, the Permanent Representative of Palestine to the United Nations, said Saturday that the UN Security Council will hold a session next Thursday to follow up the implementation of Resolution 2334 on Israeli settlements.

He told official Voice of Palestine radio that the meeting will follow up on the ongoing Israeli violations, including the demolition of homes and the displacement of citizens in Jerusalem.

Mansour said the meeting comes as part of Palestine’s diplomatic efforts, with a view to achieve permanent ceasefire in Gaza and "provide international protection to our people."

The diplomat revealed that the Council of Arab Ambassadors will hold talks on Monday to implement what was agreed upon at the recent meeting of the Council of Arab Foreign Ministers in Qatar.

Mansour added that another virtual meeting will be held next Monday for the countries of the Non-Aligned Movement, whose final communique will call for an end of the occupation measures in Jerusalem, and will follow up on the repercussions of the recent aggression on the Gaza Strip.

In Resolution 2334 issued in 2016, the Security Council reaffirmed that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, had no legal validity and constituted a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-state solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.

Meanwhile, Hamas and the Popular Front criticized a UN report on children and armed conflict for leaving Israel off the annual blacklist of parties responsible for "grave violations" against children.

The report verified more than 1,000 grave violations against children in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and Israel in 2020. But, it failed to put Israel on the blacklist of parties responsible for these violations.

Hamas described the report as lacking an impartial and transparent investigation into these crimes, citing that the Israeli occupation forces have killed 66 children during the latest aggression on Gaza.

The Palestinian movement demanded UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to correct this mistake and add the name of “the occupation state” to the list of shame and to punish Israel for the crimes committed against Palestinian children.



Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
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Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)

Lebanon's newly elected President Joseph Aoun told lawmakers on Thursday that he will work to ensure the state has the exclusive right to carry arms, in his first speech at parliament after he was elected.

His comments were seen partly as a reference to Hezbollah's arsenal, which he had not commented on publicly as the former army commander.

In a first round of voting Thursday, Aoun received 71 out of 128 votes but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to win outright. Of the rest, 37 lawmakers cast blank ballots and 14 voted for “sovereignty and the constitution.”
In the second round, he received 99 votes.

In his speech in parliament, Aoun also pledged to carry out reforms to the judicial system and fight corruption.

He promised to control the country’s borders and “ensure the activation of the security services and to discuss a strategic defense policy that will enable the Lebanese state to remove the Israeli occupation from all Lebanese territories” in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli military has not yet withdrawn from dozens of villages.

He also vowed to reconstruct “what the Israeli army destroyed in the south, east and (Beirut’s southern) suburbs.”

Thursday’s vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking international assistance for reconstruction.

Aoun said he would call for parliamentary consultations as soon as possible on naming a new prime minister.