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In his address to the Security Council's emergency meeting on the situation in Lebanon, Attaf stressed that the iniquitous and barbaric Zionist aggression to which this brotherly country is once again being subjected, and whose atrocity and scale are matched only by the afflictions suffered by the people of Gaza “is an integral part of the policy of escalation of the Israeli colonial occupation, which has made it a preferred approach and a strategy adopted on more than one front in the Middle East region.”

The Zionist entity is no longer content with waging a genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, but “is busy triggering successive crises and widening the scope of its crimes by imposing its tyranny on all neighboring countries, in Yemen, Syria, Iran, and currently, Lebanon.”

In this regard, Attaf expressed his support for and solidarity with the brotherly Lebanese people in the face of this cowardly and brutal Zionist aggression, stressing that it “demands from us and our Council, a frank condemnation, a firm denunciation and a categorical rejection, but also urgent action to put an end to it and punish the perpetrators.”

 “The attacks on Lebanon's sovereignty and stability complete the structure of the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation in Gaza,” he continued.

These are “crimes against peace and humanity, war crimes and genocidal crimes, in other words, turning Lebanon into another Gaza,” lamented the FM.

According to him, the Lebanese and Palestinians, as well as the peoples of the region, are paying with their lives for “the inability of the Security Council to stop the ongoing genocide against Gaza,” recalling that “the strategy of escalation first began in Gaza before spreading to the entire region, as the occupier seeks to demonstrate its firm belief that its security lies in depriving its neighbors of it.”

In this respect, the FM asserted that “it is time for the Security Council to understand that the question of security and stability in the Middle East cannot remain hostage to the whims and illusions of the Israeli occupier, who acts as he pleases regarding the future of this region”, underlining that the Zionist entity has proved that “it does not believe in peace, that it even rejects it and considers itself unconcerned by the rules and constants that unite us within our organization.”

Therefore, “Algeria reaffirms that working to halt the escalation is the least that can be expected of our Council, in the immediate term, because the Middle East region needs more than ever the efforts of all to spare it the throes of a global war looming on the near, not distant horizon.”

“My country maintains that these efforts must lead, as a matter of priority, to putting an end to the hell imposed on the Palestinian people in Gaza, and must be directed against the aggressor and not against the aggressed, i.e., against the Israeli occupier and not against the Palestinians or the Lebanese or other peoples of the countries in the region who are the victims of multifaceted Israeli crimes and who have suffered the arrogance and tyranny of the occupier.”

Algeria remains convinced that the return of security and stability to the Middle East depends on the Security Council's ability to remove the obstacles hindering its mission, “to impose full respect for the integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon, through the implementation of its decisions for a ceasefire in Gaza and a halt to systematic Israeli escalation in the region, putting an end to the occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands and imposing the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state as a just, lasting and definitive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.”[/ecr]