Nasrallah Warns Israel over Border Dispute with Lebanon

A picture taken on February 24, 2018 from Lebanon's southern border town of Naqoura on the border with Israel, shows the maritime boundaries between Lebanon and Israel. (AFP via Getty Images)
A picture taken on February 24, 2018 from Lebanon's southern border town of Naqoura on the border with Israel, shows the maritime boundaries between Lebanon and Israel. (AFP via Getty Images)
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Nasrallah Warns Israel over Border Dispute with Lebanon

A picture taken on February 24, 2018 from Lebanon's southern border town of Naqoura on the border with Israel, shows the maritime boundaries between Lebanon and Israel. (AFP via Getty Images)
A picture taken on February 24, 2018 from Lebanon's southern border town of Naqoura on the border with Israel, shows the maritime boundaries between Lebanon and Israel. (AFP via Getty Images)

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah party issued a warning Tuesday to archenemy Israel over the two countries’ maritime border dispute, saying that “any arm” that reaches to steal Lebanon’s wealth “will be cut off.”

Hassan Nasrallah's remarks came amid intensified US efforts to resolve a more than a decade-old maritime border dispute between Israel and Lebanon, which have officially been at war since Israel’s creation in 1948.

Both countries claim some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon also claims that the Karish gas field is in disputed territory under ongoing maritime border negotiations while Israel says it lies within its internationally recognized economic waters.

Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser for energy security at the US State Department who has been mediating in the dispute, met with top Lebanese officials last week. After the talks, he said the two countries are getting closer to reaching a deal in the dispute.

Hochstein was later reported to have visited Israel and is expected back in Beirut in the coming weeks with Israeli responses to Lebanese requests.

Israel and Hezbollah are bitter enemies that fought a monthlong war in the summer of 2006. Israel considers the Iran-backed Shiite militant group its most serious immediate threat, estimating that Hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.

In his speech during a rally south of Beirut, attended by tens of thousands to mark Ashoura, Nasrallah said Lebanon “should be ready to all possibilities.”

“We will not tolerate the idea that our wealth be stolen,” Nasrallah said.

Lebanon badly needs an agreement over the maritime border in the Mediterranean as it hopes to exploit offshore gas reserves to try and alleviate what has become the worst economic crisis in its modern history.

Last month, the Israeli military shot down three unarmed Hezbollah drones flying over the Karish field. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the time criticized Hezbollah, saying the move could pose risks to the country. Hezbollah later aired drone footage showing Israeli ships in the area.

“Don’t make mistakes with Lebanon nor with the people of Lebanon,” Nasrallah said. “Any arm that tries to reach for any of this (Lebanese) wealth will be cut off.”

Nasrallah also warned Israel not to target any Palestinian officials in Lebanon amid a ceasefire that ended three days of deadly fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group in the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Jihad group, along with the much larger Hamas group that runs Gaza, is a Hezbollah ally.



UN Appalled by Extrajudicial Killings in Khartoum

A Sudanese army soldier gestures from the back of a vehicle as it drives past damaged cars lying along a street in Khartoum on Thursday (AFP photo) 
A Sudanese army soldier gestures from the back of a vehicle as it drives past damaged cars lying along a street in Khartoum on Thursday (AFP photo) 
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UN Appalled by Extrajudicial Killings in Khartoum

A Sudanese army soldier gestures from the back of a vehicle as it drives past damaged cars lying along a street in Khartoum on Thursday (AFP photo) 
A Sudanese army soldier gestures from the back of a vehicle as it drives past damaged cars lying along a street in Khartoum on Thursday (AFP photo) 

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Thursday said he was appalled by reports of widespread extrajudicial killings of civilians in Khartoum following its recapture by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on 26 March.

“I am utterly appalled by the credible reports of numerous incidents of summary executions of civilians in several areas of Khartoum, on apparent suspicions that they were collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces,” said Turk.

He then urged the commanders of the Sudanese Armed Forces “to take immediate measures to put an end to arbitrary deprivation of life.”

The UN Commissioner said his Office has reviewed multiple horrific videos posted on social media since 26 March, all of them apparently filmed in southern and eastern Khartoum.

“They show armed men – some in uniform and others in civilian clothes – executing civilians in cold blood, often in public settings. In some videos, perpetrators state that they are punishing supporters of RSF,” he said.

The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has been battling the army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, since April 2023.

Last week the army said it had retaken full control of Khartoum after weeks of attacks on the capital by the paramilitaries, though Daglo said his forces had only “repositioned.”

On Thursday, Sudan's paramilitary said they downed an Antonov military plane, the fourth this month, belonging to the Sudanese army near Al Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State.

The RSF published a video that they said showed the plane wreckage. It said in a statement that the plane dropped “dozens of barrel bombs on innocent civilians in Al Fasher and other Sudanese cities.”

Meanwhile, an activist group said that the RSF killed at least 85 people in one week during attacks south of the capital Khartoum.

“For the seventh consecutive day, the Janjaweed militias continue their violent attacks on villages... west of Jebel Awliya, resulting in the deaths of more than 85 people and the injury of dozens,” said the Sudanese resistance committee, referring to the RSF by the name of its precursor.

Bashir’s Deputy Released

Also on Thursday, Sudanese authorities released former First Vice President Bakri Hassan Saleh and Youssif Abdel Fattah, a former minister.

Saleh and Abdel Fattah are among some 30 officials who are standing trial for their involvement in the June 30, 1989 coup, that brought former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir to power.

SAF leader Abdel Fattah al Burhan issued the decision based on a judicial ruling that stated the two men need to receive treatment due to deteriorating health conditions.