BEIRUT, Dec. 12 — The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has recorded more than 10,000 violations of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 by Israeli forces since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect on Nov. 27, 2024, UNIFIL Spokesperson Candice Ardell told Xinhua on Friday.

“Since Nov. 27, 2024, UNIFIL has recorded more than 10,000 violations of Resolution 1701, including more than 8,100 air violations, over 2,600 activities by Israeli forces north of the Blue Line, and more than 1,000 firing trajectories that crossed the Blue Line,” the spokesperson said.

At the same time, she said, Israeli soldiers remain inside Lebanese territory, “while we continue to record daily land and air violations of Resolution 1701 and of Lebanon’s sovereignty.”

She added that peacekeepers have discovered “more than 360 weapons caches inside Lebanese territory, most of which are likely linked to non-state actors, and none of them appear to be new.”

“Since Nov. 27, 2024, peacekeepers have not observed any military movements or the establishment of new military infrastructure by non-state actors in southern Lebanon,” Ardell noted.

Despite the ceasefire agreement, the Israeli army has occasionally carried out strikes in Lebanon, which it says are meant to eliminate Hezbollah “threats,” and it has maintained forces at five key points in the Lebanese border area after the deadline for its full withdrawal expired in February. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 12 — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for advocating a “law of the strongest” in international politics after a recent phone call between the two leaders on regional tensions.

“The unilateralism that President Trump wants is one in which the strongest dictates what others must do,” Lula said during an event in Minas Gerais state.

Lula said he emphasized in the phone call the necessity to preserve the Americas as a conflict-free region, but Trump insisted on highlighting U.S. military might.

The conversation was part of Brazil’s effort to act as an intermediary amid rising tensions between the United States and Venezuela, as well as other Latin American countries.

“We are going to try to use words as an instrument of persuasion to do things right. Diplomatically, words are the strongest tool we have to resolve problems,” Lula added. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 12– “China’s approach in targeted poverty alleviation over the many years is a lesson, I think, for many countries around the world,” executive secretary of the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Pradeep Kurukulasuriya said in an interview with Xinhua.

“What China has done over the last so many years is a model for many countries to learn from. Countries that are involved and expecting also to reduce poverty are finding ways to learn and replicate models that have worked,” Kurukulasuriya said.

The UN system is powerful in supporting dialogue, negotiation, capacity building, policy reforms, regulations and so on, all of which are very important to achieve development objectives, he said.

Equally important, especially as development assistance goes down, is to try and figure out ways in which private sector finance can start to flow into a development context that it previously has not.

“This is where the UNCDF comes in,” he said. The UNCDF is essentially a financial de-risking platform, which means it provides confidence to private investors, institutional investors, multilateral development banks, and development finance institutions to come into markets that they otherwise would think are too risky, he said.

Calling China an important partner for many of the countries that the UNCDF supports, Kurukulasuriya said that its strategy on long-term investment, strategy on investing in renewable energy, and strategy on poverty reduction “are all important lessons that we have to be able to learn from and take to other countries.”

Kurukulasuriya said he was “very excited” about his coming visit to China. “I’m hoping that through this interaction, I can incentivize partners from China to support investments in the developing world and ensure that businesses thrive in the countries that we’re supporting, which is ultimately in everyone’s interests,” he noted.

As a hybrid development and finance organization established by the UN General Assembly in 1966, the UNCDF is positioned to act as a catalyst in high-risk markets, particularly in the least developed countries, small island developing countries, fragile and conflict-affected countries, according to the official website of the UNCDF. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)