UNSC to hold emergency meeting on Hezbollah pager blasts on Friday

UN chief Guterres warned that attacks on Hezbollah pose “a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon.”

The United Nations Security Council will convene on Friday to discuss the pager blasts in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah, Slovenia’s UN Ambassador Samuel Zbogar, president of the 15-member council for September, confirmed.

The meeting was requested by Algeria on behalf of Arab states, Zbogar added.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking earlier on Wednesday, warned that the attacks on Hezbollah represent “a serious risk of a dramatic escalation in Lebanon," urging efforts to prevent such an escalation. "Obviously, the logic of making all these devices explode is to do it as a pre-emptive strike before a major military operation," he told reporters ahead of the annual UN General Assembly.

Guterres also stressed the importance of not weaponising civilian objects, calling for restraint. His spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, later issued a statement urging "all concerned actors to exercise maximum restraint to avert any further escalation."