China called on the UN Security Council to take “urgent actions” to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East as Israel launched fresh air strikes in Lebanon.
China’s permanent representative to the UN, Fu Cong, said during a Security Council briefing on Wednesday that it needed to make clear and unequivocal demands to stop the cycle of violence over the Israeli-Lebanon conflict.
“The Security Council bears the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security,” the official Xinhua news agency reported Fu as saying, noting that all parties concerned “must return to the track of political and diplomatic solutions”.
Family and friends of Captain Eitan Oster, a slain IDF soldier, gather at his graveside.Credit: Getty Images
Israel’s latest missile strikes in central Beirut come after Iran fired more than 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday. Israel has also sent infantry and armoured units into Lebanon with reports of fighting with the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.
Warning that the current situation was “hanging by a thread”, Xinhua cited Fu as saying that any “passive procrastination would be irresponsible, and any rhetoric of condoning further military adventurism would send a wrong message”.
Fu said the spreading Middle East conflict had already caused an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, with Gaza having become a “hell on earth”, and more than 1.2 million people displaced in Lebanon.
China’s Foreign Ministry has urged all parties and especially Israel to immediately cool things down to prevent the situation from getting out of control. Beijing has also said it opposes any violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Reuters