The president of Lebanon, a political ally of Hezbollah, compared recent Israeli drone strikes to a “declaration of war.”
President Michel Aoun, 84, decried drone strikes against a Palestinian faction in eastern Lebanon Monday and framed the strikes an “Israeli assault,” according to Reuters.
“What happened was similar to a declaration of war which allows us to resort to our right to defending our sovereignty,” Aoun said according to his office’s Twitter account. “We are a people seeking peace not war, and we don’t accept anyone threatening us in any war.”
The drone strikes came hours after two drones, believed to be Israeli, crashed down in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a region dominated by Hezbollah, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and many other countries.
Despite Israel not yet claiming responsibility for the drones, 58-year-old Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah described the action as the first Israeli attack in Lebanon since the 2006 Lebanon war. In a Sunday speech, Nasrallah said the incident had initiated a “new phase” of tensions between the two countries.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri met with the army chief and interior and defense ministers Monday and is expected to meet with ambassadors from the UN Security Council’s five permanent members.
