Lebanese president seeks NAM resolution against Israel

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said he was hopeful the 14th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit would approve a resolution condemning "Israel's military aggression," local news website Naharnet reported Friday.

"We hope this will be a lesson to Israel that you can't solve problems by force," Lahoud, who is attending the summit at Cuba's capital city of Havana, was quoted as saying.

Lahoud said that his country could not be defeated "despite Israel's military might and U.S. backing" because "the people of Lebanon were determined to stand up, all united against the aggression."

The report said that Israel's air strikes on Lebanon and its occupation of Palestinian territories angered leaders at the summit, who also criticized the United States for supplying weapons to Israel.

"Israel's illegal actions are the result of the support it receives from the United States," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Roque was quoted as saying.

Israel launched a massive offensive on Lebanon after Lebanese militant group Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in a cross- border raid on July 12.

The Israel-Hezbollah conflict ended on Aug. 14 under a UN resolution. Over 1,000 Lebanese and 157 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, in addition to huge property damages and economic losses of both sides.

Cuba is hosting the summit of the NAM, a 116-member organization made up of mostly developing countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America, on Sept. 11-16.

Source: Xinhua

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