Russia has taken the rare step of issuing a blanket condemnation of Israeli military actions in Lebanon. On Tuesday its foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a scathing statement that these escalated attacks which have reached Beirut could destabilize the whole Middle East region.

She began the statement by reviewing that starting Monday “the Israeli leadership announced that the IDF had launched an offensive operation, dubbed ‘Northern Arrows,’ aimed at undermining the military infrastructure of the Hezbollah movement.” At this point Israel has mounted three major missile strikes on Beirut, specifically the southern suburbs.

TOI via Flash90: IDF tank seen on top of a truck in traffic en route to the northern border with Lebanon.

“Hezbollah, in turn, intensified its rocket attacks on military facilities in Israel,” she continued. However, Israel would disagree with the Kremlin spokeswoman’s assessment, as it has pointed to rocket attacks on Israeli civilian towns and settlements, which have also resulted in the indefinite evacuation of at least 80,000 people since last year.

Zakharova then stressed, “We strongly condemn the large-scale military attacks against Lebanon. We would especially like to emphasize our principled position on the inadmissibility of indiscriminate attacks that target civilians.”

She urged that the international community must press both sides to halt the “spiral of violence” before the situation “gets out of control”. 

“We must do everything possible to prevent the Middle East from plunging into a full-scale armed conflict, the devastating consequences of which will inevitably affect everyone – both in the region and beyond,” the diplomat said. “We proceed from the fact that the security of any state in the region should not be ensured at the expense of others,” she said.

Israel on Monday reported an attempt by Iran-linked paramilitaries in Iraq to launch a missile on its territory, which wasn’t successful. As for Syria, some regional pundits have expressed surprise that President Bashar Al-Assad has been relatively quiet and appears ready to stay on the sidelines.

Iran has meanwhile warned that Israel is seeking to use its offensive in Lebanon as a ‘trap’ to draw in Iran and the plunge the whole region into crisis.

Israel has said Hezbollah has for the past year been launching rockets attacks on Israeli civilians, while others view the IDF’s new offensive as being disproportionate…

https://t.co/5OhY72JHLy pic.twitter.com/7JBs9PXkck

— Adam Johnson (@adamjohnsonCHI) September 23, 2024

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian alleged that Israel is laying “traps”. Times of Israel describes that “Pezeshkian pointed to the deadly explosions of pagers, walkie-talkies and other electronic devices in Lebanon last week, which he blamed on Israel, and the assassination of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on the eve of his inauguration.”

“They are dragging us to a point where we do not wish to go,” the Iranian leader said in reference to Israel and the Netanyahu government. “There is no winner in warfare. We are only fooling ourselves” if we believe that, Pezeshkian said.