The Israeli-Lebanese conflict, which has been going on for the past twenty days now, proved once again that conflicts that aren’t settled for many years lead to the restart of a war and that war may have serious consequences for average citizens.
According to experts, the same goes for the Karabakh conflict because the more the conflict remains unsettled, the higher the chance for a war.
During a press conference at the National Press Club, Lebanese Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Gabriel Zherera did everything he could to avoid drawing parallels between the Karabakh conflict and the Israeli-Lebanese conflict. He believes that the reason for the Israeli-Lebanese conflict is the lack of the final establishment of peace and the unsettled conflicts. Zherera says that the capture of the Israeli soldiers on the part of “Hizballah” was simply an excuse to start the war.
The ambassador says that “Hizballah” only exchanged eight hostages after capturing the soldiers, while Israel is destroying Lebanon and calling it the attack on “Hizballah”.
“Israel is systematically destroying Lebanon. You see how Israel shoots air missiles, destroys bridges, civilians, homes, buildings,” said Zherera and added that there are more and more damages each day. He also mentioned the number of victims as a result of the conflict.
“The Israeli aggression has led to the death of 1000 Lebanese, 3000 have been injured and nearly one million Lebanese have emigrated. The damages caused by the 22-day Israeli-Lebanese war are estimated to be 5 billion dollars, which is five times the budget of Armenia
The Lebanese Ambassador to Armenia says that the international community wants Israel to declare ceasefire immediately and representatives of well-known international organizations are paying visits to the conflict zone. However, those visits haven’t been productive. Lebanon is currently waiting for the UN Security Council session next week with the hope that it will put and end to the war. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently visited the conflict zone and called on both sides to end military operations, however, that didn’t make the U.S. officially condemn Israel’s activities. Many people are of the opinion that the U.S. is secretly on Israel’s side.
“The U.S. is an ally to Lebanon because there are nearly 2 million Lebanese living in America. We hope that the U.S. will do what is written in the Constitution and will take advantage of the friendly ties it has with Lebanon and Israel to establish peace,” says Mr. Zherera.
According to the ambassador, the Lebanese government has made seven proposals for ending the conflict:
1. immediate ceasefire
2. exchange of captives
3. dislocation of Israeli forces from the seized territories
4. distribution of Lebanese forces throughout the country
5. allocation of UN peacekeeping forces in South Lebanon
6. return to the Lebanese-Israeli ceasefire contract signed in 1949
7. declaration of Lebanon as a disastrous country to get international aid
Zherera is of the opinion that only after this may there be dislocation of “Hizballah” forces.
“Hizballah” is a national movement that began with the purpose of liberating South Lebanon. If the purpose of the national movement was the liberation of territories and if those territories are already liberated, then the movement is not worth anything. So, after the return of territories, “Hizballah” will remain as a political party and will be represented in the government,” said the Lebanese ambassador.