After United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis met with Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem of Hezbollah, Israel officials condemned the meeting.
"We are shocked and disappointed by this meeting with a designated terror organization’s leader, threatening Israel, Lebanon and the whole region," Israel’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon tweeted. "One doesn’t need to read the Naim Qassem book, courtesy of #Hezbollah terrorists, in order to understand this !!"
We are shocked and disappointed by this meeting with a designated terror organization’s leader, threatening Israel,Lebanon and the whole region. One doesn’t need to read the Naim Qassem book, courtesy of #Hezbollah terrorists, in order to understand this !! @IsraelMFA @UN https://t.co/o7ccAzvXTO— Emmanuel Nahshon (@EmmanuelNahshon) May 21, 2019
Israel's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Danny Danon also shared his displeasure on twitter.
"The role of #UN representatives is to promote a stable and secure region and not to meet with the leaders of a terrorist organization and to glorify incitement against the State of Israel," Danon tweeted Wednesday morning.
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if(window.location.pathname.indexOf("656089") != -1){console.log("hedva connatix");document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none";}The role of #UN representatives is to promote a stable and secure region and not to meet with the leaders of a terrorist organization and to glorify incitement against the State of Israel. https://t.co/jvtzGTwdhh— Ambassador Danny Danon | דני דנון (@dannydanon) May 21, 2019
Kubis wrote on twitter about the meeting on Monday night, describing the meeting as "open and substantive discussion."
Grateful for an open and substantive discussion on a broad range of topics with Deputy Secretary General Naim Qassem of Hizbullah. On top I received a copy of his book - a necessary reading.— Jan Kubis (@UNJanKubis) May 20, 2019
Kubis also mentioned the Hezbollah leader gave him a book, Hizbullah (Hezbollah): The Story from Within, which Qassem wrote.
The IDF retorted to Kubis' interest in the book by saying, "Do you know what else appears to be necessary reading? @UN Resolution 1701."
Do you know what else appears to be necessary reading? @UN Resolution 1701.— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 21, 2019
UN Resolution 1701 was an attempt at solving the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.
Israel along with the US and the Arab league recognize Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.