Lebanon's foreign minister said on Monday that Israel was trying to "justify another aggression" by falsely alleging there are Hezbollah missile sites near Beirut's international airport.
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu identified three locations near the airport where he said the Shiite terrorist group was converting "inaccurate projectiles" into precision-guided missiles.
Operations were being carried out with Iranian funding and support and the facilities were being built near residential areas to protect them, knowingly placing Beirut's civilian population at risk, Netanyahu said.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, speaking to foreign ambassadors before taking them on a tour of the area near the airport, said there were "many statements affirming the possession of accurate missiles by Hezbollah" but stressed that "this does not mean that these missiles are present in the vicinity of Beirut airport."
Bassil accompanied the diplomats, who included Russian and Iranian envoys, and journalists on a tour of three sites near the airport, including the grounds of a top division Lebanese football team, Al-Ahed, which Israel identified as one of the sites.
"We have invited the ambassadors on a tour to refute Israel's reasons to violate Lebanese sovereignty and attack it," Bassil told reporters.
"Netanyahu is committing state terrorism against Lebanon, which is a peaceful nation that has never attacked [anyone] and has always been forced to be in a defensive position."
Bassil, a political ally of Hezbollah, said Israel aimed to "falsify facts concerning Lebanon and to vocalize lies that carry the seeds of a threat that does not frighten us."
Netanyahu had used the platform of the U.N. General Assembly "to justify another aggression on a sovereign country like Lebanon," he said.
In response, Netanyahu said later on Monday Hezbollah had lied to the international community. The diplomats were taken to the football pitch but not to the underground site adjacent to it where the missile factory was located, he said.
"Hezbollah is blatantly lying to the international community with a futile tour led by the Lebanese foreign minister. The ambassadors should ask themselves why they waited three days until they carried out the tour. Hezbollah regularly makes sure to clean up sites that have been exposed," Netanyahu said in a statement.
