UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday that ongoing military activity in Lebanon "poses a grave risk to the ceasefire and the efforts toward a lasting and comprehensive peace," his sharpest language since the two-week truce took effect. [1]

The statement came as Israeli strikes on Lebanon intensified rather than subsided after the U.S.-Iran ceasefire announcement. A senior UN official told reporters the situation in Lebanon remained "critical," with deadly strikes continuing across the country even as the broader deal was meant to de-escalate the region. [2]

Guterres has been consistent in his position — he visited Beirut in March, called for an end to the war, and paid tribute to wounded peacekeepers from the 10,000-strong UNIFIL mission in southern Lebanon. [3] Three UN peacekeepers were killed in the preceding weeks. But his warnings carry no enforcement mechanism. The Security Council remains deadlocked, and the ceasefire text itself, as Iran and the U.S. interpret it differently, may not cover Lebanon at all.

The gap between Guterres's rhetoric and the Security Council's paralysis is the story. He can name the risk. He cannot stop it. Friday's Islamabad talks will determine whether Lebanon is folded into the negotiating framework or left to burn on the margins of a deal that was never designed to include it.

-- LUCIA VEGA, Sao Paulo.