UN Security Council to meet on Lebanon on Wednesday
The United Nations Security Council will meet at 22:00 GMT tomorrow on the escalation in fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, said Slovenia, president of the 15-member council for September.
How Biden emboldened Israel to attack Lebanon
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/24/disastrous-failure-how-biden-emboldened-israel-to-attack-lebanon
Beyond their uncompromising support for Israel’s war on Gaza, US President Joe Biden and his aides have been in near complete alignment with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approach to Lebanon.
Experts have said that unconditional US support for Israel, coupled with Washington’s failure to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, has emboldened the country to declare an apparent all-out war in Lebanon – and pushed the region to the edge of an abyss.
Rescuers rush to the scene of an Israeli air raid in the southern Lebanese village of Abbasiyeh, September 24
Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, says US President Joe Biden has “run out of time” and will not be able to secure a lasting ceasefire deal in Gaza before his presidency ends.
Biden “should have been able to put an end to this war in the very first few days, weeks, even months – but he didn’t,” Bishara said, He “never used the leverage the US had”, he added. Instead, Biden continued to provide Israel with “arms, finance and diplomatic shield”.It’s been almost one year since Israel launched its assault on the enclave, killing more than 41,000 people.
Bishara said the US is “a party to the ongoing genocide” in Gaza, as well as the ongoing war in Lebanon.
Lebanon’s FM says US only country that can make ‘difference in the Middle East’
But Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said Biden’s address was “not strong, not promising” and the US was the only country “that can really make a difference in the Middle East”.
Washington is Israel’s longtime ally and biggest arms supplier.
The United States “is the key … to our salvation”, he told an event in New York City hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Half a million people are estimated to have been displaced in Lebanon, he said. He said Lebanon’s prime minister hoped to meet with US officials over the next two days.
Israel has drastically ramped up attacks on Lebanon in recent days, killing at least 569 people since yesterday, according to the country’s Health Ministry. Top US officials have repeatedly said that they do not want to see an all-out war in Lebanon, but have not announced concrete steps towards that goal.
