Russia decisively condemns all attacks on UNIFIL troops, whoever the perpetrator was.

We support the calls of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterish to parties to the conflict to comply with the norms of international law and in guarantee the security of blue helmets.

We strongly strongly believe in the need for a swift ceasefire in the Lebanon Israel border area.

Otherwise, this heinous spike in violence in the south of Lebanon won’t be the last fatal incident affecting UN staff.

Another dangerous trend in recent days has been the deliberate targeting by the IDF of the media uh reporting on the ground in the area of the Lebanese Israel clashes.

According to information we’ve received on the 28th of March as a result of a strike from an Israeli drone in the region of the Azine a famous journalist from the television channel Al-Manar was killed Ali Shu and also his colleagues from Al Mayadin channel Fatima and Muhammad Fatuni.

the floor to the representative of the Russian Federation.

President, we are grateful to USG Jean-Pierre Laqua and Tom Fletcher and also ASG Khaled Herrari for their comprehensive briefings on the situation in Lebanon which we are very concerning.

Also, the on the nion month of military escalation along the blue line and beyond is affecting not only our friends, the Lebanese people, but also peacekeepers of UNIFIL deployed in the south of the country.

A clear and at the same time tragic confirmation of this is the death of three UNIFIL personnel in the last 48 hours and the injury injuring of several others.

We express express our sincere condolences to the families of the victims and we wish a swift recovery to the injured peacekeepers.

From what we can ascertain, according to comments from the leadership of the UN and UNIL, the investigation into what happened in the south of Lebanon is ongoing.

We trust that the UN Secretariat will soon receive comprehensive information on this, including on who carried out this flagrant attack.

Russia decisively condemns all attacks on UNIFIL troops, whoever the perpetrator was.

We support the calls of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterish to parties to the conflict to comply with the norms of international law and in guarantee the security of blue helmets.

We strongly strongly believe in the need for a swift ceasefire in the Lebanon Israel border area.

Otherwise, this heinous spike in violence in the south of Lebanon won’t be the last fatal incident affecting UN staff.

president.

Another dangerous trend in recent days has been the deliberate targeting by the IDF of the media uh reporting on the ground in the area of the Lebanese Israel clashes.

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According to information we’ve received on the 28th of March as a result of a strike from an Israeli drone in the region of the Jazzine, a famous journalist from the television channel Almanar was killed.

Ali Shu and also his colleagues from Al-Mayadin channel Fatima and Muhammad Fatuni early on the 19th of March in the south of Lebanon as a result of a missile attack by the Israeli air force.

A camera crew from Russia today were injured.

The targeted strike was carried out directly close to where they were filming where there were no military objective objects which is clearly confirmed because the camera operator was able to film the detonation of the ammunition.

We see this kind of action by Israel and its military to be a grave violation of international law and a deliberate hindrance to the work of the media.

We demand a painstaking investigation into this incident by the Israeli authorities and for the perpetrators to be held accountable and for this kind of incident not to be allowed to happen again.

President, we like the majority of the people in this room are very concerned about the intensification of hostilities of Israel in Lebanon, including daily exchange of fire and the consequences of this for both parties to the conflict, the destruction of critical civilian infrastructure.

For the time while we are discussing the incident with UNIFIL, Israel has carried out a new powerful air strike in Beirut.

I’d like to recall once again that the root cause of this escalation in the Lebanese Israel confrontation is the aggression of Washington and West Jerusalem against Iran, which was the trip wire for a broader destruction of the fragile stability in the Middle East.

Unfortunately, me many members of the security council are stubbornly silent about this and continue to try to place all responsibility exclusively on the Lebanese push back, presenting it as the main culprit for the spike of violence along the blue line.

At the same time, they stay quiet about the many violations of Israel’s regime of the ceasefire over the last year and a half.

This onesided approach by a host of states including those directly involved in the current vast regional war clearly is not helping normalize a situation in the region.

On the contrary, it is spurring on waring parties to escalate the conflict.

As a result, we are seeing a rising civilian death toll and large-scale destruction of civilian infrastructure in Lebanon alone since the 2nd of March as a result of IDF action.

One and a half almost one and a half thousand people have died.

The number of injured people is nearing 4,000 and more than a million Lebanese people have become IDPs.

Israel’s strikes on medicine facilities in Arab republics has become an everyday occurrence.

Again this backdrop we are hearing louder and louder militar militaristic rhetoric from western Jerusalem including orders from the prime minister Benuin Netanyah to expand the so-called buffer zone in south of Lebanon illegally under control of the IDF by the IDF.

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President, we reaffirm our commitment of our country to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon.

We call on the leadership of Israel to refrain from using purely military means to address their legitimate security concerns, to withdraw their army units from occupied territories, and to return to the path of diplomacy.

A key benchmark for parties should remain to ensure that to fully honor their obligations under security council resolution 1701 and other decisions of the council including those that provide the parameter for the activities of UNIFIL which continue despite threats to their security.

They are remaining in their positions and paying with their lives to implement the UN mandate bestowed upon them to stabilize the region.

Thank you.

I thank the representative of the Russian Federation for his statement.

I give the floor to the representative of Colombia.

Senior President, Mr. President, I thank the presidency for organizing this meeting and