Posted on 04/25/2008 7:36:51 AM PDT by jhpigott
The Israel Air Force has dramatically escalated flights over Lebanese air space, in violation of international law.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) says the daily number of Israeli air violations surged from 282 in February to 692 in March.
In the first two weeks of April the number has surged again to 476.
“The overflights constitute violations of Lebanese sovereignty and the Blue Line and continue to undermine the credibility of UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces,” the UN Assistant-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Angela Kane, told the Security Council on Wednesday night.
“The Government of Israel has continued to claim the flights are carried out for security reasons. My representatives in the region and I have regularly continued to reiterate our concern and call on Israel to cease the increasing number of overflights, which stand in violation of Security Council resolutions,” she said.
The Israeli flights over Lebanon have been going on for decades, despite international protests.
When the Lebanon war of 2006 came to an end a negotiated ceasefire which translated into UN Resolution 1701 was supposed to bring them to an end. This was so only for a matter of weeks before the Israel Air Force was back in business.
At that time international condemnation of the flights escalated however Israel was undeterred.
"They can protest for as long as they like. Our reconnaissance flights will continue," then deputy defence minister Ephraim Sneh said at the time.
"These are not agreed flights but operations carried out to locate enemies, terrorists," he said.
"The fact there was a ceasefire in Lebanon has not transformed this country into another Switzerland."
The minister was speaking a day after France, which commands the UN peacekeeping force overseeing the truce in Lebanon, and the UN, pressed Israel to halt the overflights, which they called a violation of the ceasefire.
A UN statement issued in the name of special envoy to Lebanon, Norwegian Geir Pedersen, condemned the persistent violations of Lebanese air space.
"Geir Pedersen expresses his serious concern at the continuing overflights by Israel which constitute a breach of Lebanese sovereignty and specifically of Security Council Resolution 1701," it said.
ping
LOL, and Syria and Iran don't??
Funny how they mention Hezbulla and rockets...
Funny how they NEVER mention Hezbulla and rockets...
“”These are not agreed flights but operations carried out to locate enemies, terrorists,” he said.”
Which, he should’ve added, Lebanon continues to fail to stop.
UNIFIL’s credibility cratered when Hezzoballah drove a truck full of guns through their lines this week.
It is always amusing when the scum start squirming.
There is no such thing as International Law. Anyone who tries to enforce this in our country should be jailed immediately. The U.S. Constitution is the only law in this world.
This piece might as well have been written by Hezbollah.
what’s interesting about this piece to me is the HUGE increase in over-flights
“The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) says the daily number of Israeli air violations surged from 282 in February to 692 in March.”
it coincides with the recent tensions in the region, Imad’s assasination, Syrian military deployments to the border, huge Israeli war drill, etc.
Yes, and to clarify my previous post, I was knocking this article’s relentless editorializing, not you for posting it.
i didn’t figure you meant any harm by the post
i post this garbage from time to time because often their are valuable nuggets in there. The fact that the IAF has increased its overflights almost 3 fold tells me they are doing a lot of recon, which begs the question - what for???
?UN credibility? News as fiction...
Where is the (BARF ALERT)?
High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel, WOT
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Overflights=Bad.....40,000 missiles=good
Good ol' UN antisemitism.
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