BICOM

Lebanon’s Higher Defence Council, which includes the President, Prime Minister and Parliamentary Speaker, met yesterday to discuss Israel’s plan to build a wall along its border.

The Council agreed to take measures “at various regional and international levels to prevent Israel from building the cement wall … and from the possibility of infringing on Lebanon’s oil and gas wealth and its (territorial) waters”. The Secretary General of the council said: “This wall, if it is built, will be considered an assault on Lebanese land,” adding that the council “has given its instructions to confront this aggression to prevent Israel from building (the wall) on Lebanese territory”.

Israel maintains that the wall is being built on the Israeli side of the internationally-recognised “blue line” border that was drawn up by the UN and divides the two countries.

Al-Hayat has reported that the US is willing to serve as a mediator between Lebanon and Israel to resolve the issue. The report said that David Satterfield, Assistant US Secretary of State, relayed this message in meetings this week in Beirut and called on the Lebanese to conduct themselves with restraint.

Across the border in Syria, a new wave of regime air strikes on the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, killed at least 23 civilians yesterday.

Approximately 400,000 people are trapped in the enclave that has been under siege since 2013. The UN has said the humanitarian situation there is “extreme” and appealed for a ceasefire. The last United Nations aid convoy entered in November 2017.

According to media reports, on Monday 30 civilians were killed in air raids, Tuesday’s raids killed 80 more, and on Wednesday, up to 26 were killed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, has said that 369 people have been killed since the government stepped up its assault on 29 December.

The US has accused the Syrian government of using chlorine in an attack on Eastern Ghouta a week ago. On Monday the US and Russia clashed at the UN Security Council, after US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told the council that there was “obvious evidence from dozens of victims” that chlorine had been used in Eastern Ghouta.

In the Eastern Deir el-Zour province, the US military launched airstrikes on Syrian government-backed forces yesterday in response to a coordinated assault on Syrian opposition forces who were accompanied by US advisers.