Lebanese Ministry of Information
Lebanese President Michel Aoun told Arab leaders on Sunday that the recent US decision to recognize Israeli illegal annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights threatens Lebanon’s sovereignty.
“This decision does not only threaten the sovereignty of a brotherly state [Syria], but rather threatens as well the sovereignty of the Lebanese state, which owns lands that were gradually bitten off by Israel,” President Aoun told the 30th Arab League summit, held in Tunis.
“How can we, small countries, feel reassured anymore when international charters and rights are being undermined, and when the international legitimacy which governs the UN-recognized borders between states is being challenged?”
The Zionist entity currently occupies several areas that Lebanon claims as its territory, including the Shebaa Farms.
All Arab leaders who took to the podium Sunday roundly condemned U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision last week to officially recognize the so-called ‘Israeli sovereignty’ on occupied Golan Heights.
Aoun also suggested that Syria be let back into the Arab League, eight years after its membership was suspended in an Arab campaign against Damascus.
“Do we want Syria to return to its normal place among us and to the Arab family?” Aoun said, according to The Daily Star.
“If, gathered and united, we can barely counter such projects, how then if we are scattered and dispersed as it is the case today?”
On the other hand, the president also reiterated his appeals to Arab states and the international community to facilitate the return of over 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
“Lebanon is too small for its own population. … It is not capable anymore of hosting the equivalent of half of its citizens, and it will absolutely not accept any form of settlement,” he said.
Al Manar
