Middle East: UN condemns attacks on peacekeeping troops

Iranian commander Esmail Ghaani appeared in public to attend the funeral ceremony of slain general Abbas Nilforoushan, quashing rumors of his death. 

Ghaani, who heads the Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, had disappeared from public view for some weeks now and was thought to have been killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon. 

However, on Tuesday, he appeared at the funeral wearing the Revolutionary Guard's green military uniform. 

Nilforoushan, a general in the Revlutionary Guards, was killed last month alongside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah by Israeli airstrikes on Beirut.

Australia's government has imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on five Iranians who contribute to the nation's missile defense program, Foreign Minster Penny Wong said.

She said that Iran's launch of at least 180 ballistic missiles against Israel on October 1 was "a dangerous escalation that increased the risk of a wider regional war."

The sanctions were imposed on two directors and a senior officer at Iran's Aerospace Industries Organization. The director of the Shahid Begheri Industrial Group and the commercial director of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group were also targeted. 

The announcement brings the total number of Iran-linked people sanctioned by Australia to 200. 

"Australia will continue to hold Iran to account for its reckless and destabilizing actions," Wong said. 

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that Israel would listen to the United States but make its own decisions based on national interest.

"‏We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interests," Netanyahu's office said in a statement that was first quoted by The Washington Post and later by news agencies including Reuters.

The statement comes amid anticipation that Israel will retaliate to Iran's missile strikes on October 1.

The Washington Post reported, citing two official sources familiar with the matter, that Netanyahu assured the US that Israel would rather strike Iran's military assets over its oil and nuclear facilities. 

The US is a steadfast supporter of Israel in its conflict with Hamas and now Hezbollah. However, President Joe Biden has warned Israel against striking Iran's energy facilities in order to avoid a further expansion of regional war and a spike in global energy prices.

The United Nations Security Council voiced "strong concern" over attacks on UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon days after at least five were wounded during fighting in the area.

The Security Council reiterated its support for the mission's role "in supporting regional security" after a session late on Monday in New York City.

It follows a series of incidents in which members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeepers in southern Lebanon were wounded by Israeli military fire, often at their designated posts.

In one notable incident on Sunday, two Israeli tanks burst through the gates of a UNIFIL base, the UN said. At least five peacekeepers were injured. Israel has rejected the UN's acocunt of the incident.

Members called on all parties "to respect the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and UN premises," said Switzerland's UN envoy Pascale Baeriswyl, who serves as the acting president of the Security Council.

"They recall that UN peacekeepers and UN premises must never be the target of an attack," he said. 

UNIFIL is tasked with supporting efforts to disarm militias, including Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon and help the Lebanese army keep control of the area close to the border to Israel. Israel has criticized the peacekeeping operation for failing to keep Hezbollah weapons and fighters out of this region, a key part of its mandate. 

Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday repeated a call for UNIFIL troops to leave certain areas near the border during its military operations. He accused Hezbollah of using the UNIFIL forces as "human shields," staying in close proximity to them intentionally. 

But the peacekeeping force has repeatedly said it will stay at all of its posts. 

"A decision was made that UNIFIL will currently stay in all its positions, in spite of the calls that were made by the Israeli forces to vacate the positions that were in the vicinity of the blue line," said the UN's head of peacekeeping operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

mk/msh, zc (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)