KARACHI, July 20: Senior politician Mairaj Mohammed Khan has condemned Israel for resorting to aggression against Lebanon and causing heavy casualties, as well as massive destruction.

He observed that over the last eight days, Israeli artillery and jets destroyed Beirut Airport and civil infrastructure, including bridges, besides leaving more than three hundred innocents civilians dead and scores of others injured. The onslaught had forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homeland, he noted.

Mr Khan described as ‘inhuman’ the treatment meted out to Lebanon by Israel in response to the kidnapping of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah. The response is more inappropriate and unjustified in a scenario where Israel itself had been holding an unspecified number of Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Fatah members. The Zionist state had not only destroyed the offices of the Palestinian Authority and headquarters of Hamas, but had also picked up Palestinian prime minister, ministers and legislators, he added.

“The attack on civilian targets with impunity is a sheer violation of the Geneva Convention,” he observed.

Mr Khan criticised the US for vetoing the ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council, and President Bush for passing derogatory remarks and using indecent language against Arabs and Syria at the G-8 meeting. It was, he said, an ample proof of US support and patronage vis-a-vis the Israeli aggression.

The senior politician observed that the UN and OIC had so far been unable to stop Israeli aggression, and called for a joint action by all peaceful countries to restrain Israel from destroying peace in the Middle East. He warned that if Israel resorted o attack Syria and Iran, the theatre of conflict could extend up to Afghanistan.