TEHRAN- Lebanese Labor Minister Mustafa Bairam said on Saturday that Israel as a “defeated party” cannot impose conditions on his country.  The remarks by the minister came in response to statements by the occupation regime’s authorities who threatened to use force to resolve the border issue with Lebanon.

Following the Israeli-Hezbollah tensions over the Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon which have escalated since October 7, the two sides have issued statements offering proposals to resolve the issue.  

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Friday that his country is ready to implement a UN resolution that would help end Hezbollah’s cross-border attacks on Israel if Israel also complies and withdraws from the occupied Shebaa Farms.

The Shebaa Farms, owned by Lebanon, was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel claims the land is part of the Syrian territory.  But Syria says the 39-square-km (15-square-mile) patch of land belongs to Lebanon.

“We are totally ready to commit to their implementation, on condition the Israeli side does the same, and withdraws — according to the international laws and resolutions — from occupied territory,” Mikati pointed out.

The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1701 on August 11, 2006, on the issue. The resolution calls for the full cessation of hostilities, the deployment of Lebanese forces to Southern Lebanon, the parallel withdrawal of Israeli forces behind the Blue Line, the strengthening of the UN force (UNIFIL) to facilitate the entry of Lebanese Forces into the region and the establishment of a demilitarized zone between the Blue Line and the Litani River.
 
It also calls for the UN Secretary-General to develop proposals to implement the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords and Security Council Resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006) and impose an arms embargo on Lebanon. Both parties formally agreed to the resolution within 48 hours of its adoption.

In line with Israel’s criminal and violent nature, the Zionist regime’s foreign minister Eli Cohen said on Dec. 17 that there are two ways to ensure security for Israel, “either by diplomacy or by force.”

In response to the Israeli officials’ threats over the Shebaa Farms, Labor Minister Mustafa Bairam said in remarks to the Tehran Times that the “defeated party” cannot impose its conditions on Lebanon. 

“Israel is defeated and it is in crisis and cannot impose its conditions on us,” Bairam stated, adding that the time of imposing conditions is over and it is the battlefield that determines the situation.

He reiterated that the Israeli statements are “nonsense.”

Israel-Hezbollah tensions in the border
       
On December 18, Israeli artillery shelled the outskirts of Halta town in southern Lebanon with white phosphorus munitions.

The Israeli army and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire amid rising tensions along the border. 

An Israeli military statement said fighter jets struck Hezbollah targets in the Shebaa Farms in southern Lebanon. 

The airstrikes targeted the outskirts of the towns of Halta and Kafr Shuba.

Hezbollah, for its part, said it had struck the Israeli military outpost of Al-Abbad, resulting in “direct hits.”

Repeated exchange of fires on the Lebanese-Israeli border comes 17 years after a full-scale war in 2006 between Hezbollah and Israeli forces that was the deadliest of its kind. It was in that war that Hezbollah shattered the myth that Israel’s army is unwinnable. 

Earlier on October 8, a day after Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm on southern Israel, Hezbollah and Israel started exchanging fire, raising regional tensions.  Hezbollah said it had launched precision-guided rockets and artillery onto three posts in the Shebaa Farms "in solidarity" with the Palestinian people.

"Our history, our guns and our rockets are with you," said senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine at an event in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahieh on Beirut's outskirts in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance fighters.

“On the path to liberate the remaining part of our occupied Lebanese land and in solidarity with the victorious Palestinian resistance and the steadfast Palestinian people, the groups of martyr commander Imad Moghniyeh in the Islamic Resistance movement carried out an attack on October 08 targeting 3 Zionist occupation sites in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms region,” Hezbollah said in a statement, according to Al Jazeera.

The Israeli military said on Oct. 8 it had fired artillery into an area of Lebanon from where cross-border mortar fire was launched. Israel’s military said one of its drones struck a Hezbollah post in the area of Har Dov, an area in the Shebaa Farms.

On the same date, Israel said its forces “are now attacking with artillery fire the area in Lebanon from where shooting was carried out a few minutes ago into Israeli territory.” 

The border tension comes amid an Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip that has so far killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and wounded another 60,000.