By Timour Azhari and Riham Alkousaa
BEIRUT/BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s foreign minister said on Wednesday Israel has the right to defend itself against Hezbollah attacks but supplying it with weapons had posed “a dilemma” amid concerns over international law violations.
Annalena Baerbock spoke after arriving in Lebanon for talks on how to defuse escalating Israel-Hezbollah hostilities, five days after the U.N. said its peacekeepers had been targeted by Israeli forces in south Lebanon’s conflict zone.
“On the one hand, Israel is attacked every day and not supporting it would mean that people are not (being) protected … On the other, it is also Germany’s responsibility to stand up for international humanitarian law,” Baerbock said.
She made no indication that Germany was reconsidering its longtime policy of supplying arms to Israel. Chancellor Olaf Scholz last week said Germany, one of Israel’s staunchest Western allies, would continue to provide such military aid.
Baerbock said Israel had the right to defend itself against Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah but also a responsibility to ensure it adheres to international humanitarian law.
Baerbock spoke to journalists in Beirut after meeting Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a close ally of Hezbollah who has been engaging in diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.
The U.N. mission in Lebanon said last week its outposts near Lebanon’s border with Israel had come under several “deliberate” Israeli attacks and that efforts to help civilians in villages in the war zone were being hampered by Israeli shelling.
“Any deliberate attack on U.N. peacekeepers violates humanitarian law,” said Baerbock.
Israel says U.N. forces in south Lebanon have effectively provided a human shield for Hezbollah fighters and has told UNIFIL to evacuate peacekeepers for their own safety – a request that it has refused.
Baerbock said the key to achieving peace is the full implementation of the 18-year-old U.N. Resolution 1701, which entails a Hezbollah withdrawal behind Lebanon’s Litani River and Israeli forces back from the “Blue Line” demarcating the border.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has a crucial role in maintaining stability in the region, and all parties involved must protect UNIFIL soldiers, she added.
Baerbock was set to have a video conference with UNIFIL Commanding General Aroldo Lazaro Saenz later in the afternoon.
“Our common message to the people of Lebanon is that we will not look away, we will not leave them alone,” Baerbock said.
“We are working on a diplomatic solution that respects the security interests of both Israel and Lebanon,” she added.
Germany’s DPA news agency said Berlin approved arms exports to Israel worth around 31 million euros ($34 million) over the past eight weeks, more than twice as much as in the first 7-1/2 months of this year.
(Reporting by Timor Azhari in Beirut, Riham Alkousaa in Berlin, Editing by Rachel More and Miranda Murray)
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