Israel-Lebanon miscalculation could trigger catastrophe, Guterres warns

Smoke rises after rockets fired from south Lebanon land near Kfar Szold in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel.AFP

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UN Secretary General António Guterres on Friday warned of a potentially unimaginable “catastrophe” if Lebanon and Israel go to war.

The UN chief criticised the escalation in “bellicose rhetoric from both sides as if an all-out war was imminent”.

“One rash move, one miscalculation, could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border, and frankly, beyond imagination,” Mr Guterres told reporters in New York.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged near-daily fire since Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the Gaza war.

Mr Guterres urged both parties to urgently recommit to the full implementation of Security Council resolution 1701, which brought to an end the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, and immediately return to a cessation of hostilities.

“The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza,” Mr Guterres said

The tit-for-tat strikes between Lebanon and Israel have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes on both sides of the border.

On Tuesday, Israel's military announced that “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon were approved and validated”.

In a televised address on Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned “no place” in Israel would “be spared our rockets” if a wider war began.

He also threatened nearby Cyprus if it opened its airports or bases to Israel “to target Lebanon”.

Iran's mission to the UN in New York said on Friday that Hezbollah has the capability to defend itself and Lebanon against Israel, warning that “perhaps the time for the self-annihilation of this illegitimate regime has come”.

“Any imprudent decision by the occupying Israeli regime to save itself could plunge the region into a new war,” Iran's UN mission posted on X.

On a visit to Lebanon on Tuesday, US envoy Amos Hochstein called for an “urgent” de-escalation of the cross-border fire, while the UN special co-ordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said there was “no inevitability to conflict” as she visited UN peacekeepers in the country's south.

Mr Guterres said the world body is actively working to “de-escalate tensions” and help prevent “miscalculation”.

US President Joe Biden last month outlined a truce proposal which Mr Hochstein told reporters in Beirut would ultimately lead to “the end of the conflict in Gaza” and could also bring the conflict across the Blue Line to an end.

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