(JNS) The humanitarian situation in Gaza consumed most of the United Nations Security Council’s meeting on Tuesday, April 29 for its quarterly open debate on the Israeli-Palestinian file. But Jonathan Miller, the deputy Israeli ambassador to the global body, told the council that it must take a larger regional view to understand how to resolve the problems in the Middle East.

“We have a chance to widen that lens, and we must,” the envoy told the council. “Danger and opportunity walk side by side.”

Miller called on the international community to do more to help the Lebanese government rein in the Iranian proxy Hezbollah, as Israel continues to locate and strike the terror group’s hidden arsenals, including in a civilian area in Beirut, “which contained precision missiles intended for use against Israel,” earlier this week.

Miller asked the council to act urgently, with a new Lebanese government in place that says it seeks to disarm Hezbollah.

“The Lebanese people have made one thing unmistakably clear,” he added. “They want peace, stability and a future free from terror.”

The situation in Syria is also urgent after its longtime dictator, Bashar Assad, was deposed last year, according to
Miller.

The new government is ruled by a U.S.-designated terror group and composed of jihadis, who “now hold command over military infrastructure that could be used to destabilize the region and threaten the security of neighboring states, including Israel,” Miller said.

The Syrian population deserves “a future not dominated by sectarianism and foreign interference,” according to the Israeli envoy.

Until the council deals with Iran and its other proxies, including Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen, it cannot talk about security for the region with any seriousness, according to Miller.