| 04 Nov 2009 |
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Israel says Hizbullah 'amassing weapons' in civilian homes
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04 November 2009
BEIRUT: Israel’s military intelligence chief on Tuesday accused Hizbullah of stockpiling wea-pons inside civilian homes in south Lebanon, a charge dismissed by current and former UNIFIL officials as either premature or disingenuous. During a briefing with Israel’s foreign affairs and defense committee, Major General Amos Yadlin said that Hizbullah’s arms were proliferating and being stored in areas in which international peacekeeping troops operate.
“The organization continues to arm itself and it is amassing many weapons by [procuring them from] Iran via Syria,” a parliamentary spokesperson quoted Yadlin as saying.
“It is accumulating these arms south of the Litani River, inside civilian homes in contravention of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.”
Also addressing the issue of Hamas’ rockets – which were said to have a range capable of hitting Tel Aviv from Gaza – Yadlin suggested that Syria was the main hoarder of arms destined for Hizbullah’s stocks.
“Syria has turned into the main factory and weapons cache for Hamas and Hizbullah,” he continued.
However, UNIFIL deputy spokesman Andrea Tenenti said there was no official proof to back up Yadlin’s claims.
“From what we have seen during our monitoring with the Lebanese Army, we haven’t found any evidence that any militia is arming or having weapons [in UNIFIL’s jurisdiction],” he said.
Tenenti added that probes into suspected arms depot blasts were continuing in conjunction with the LAF.
“Investigations are still ongoing and we are waiting [to see] the Secretary General’s report [on the implementation of Resolution 1701] before we can know what happened,” tenenti said.
Former long-time UNIFIL adviser Timur Goksel called the latest Israeli accusations a pre-emptive tactic.
“To say something like this is pretty standard,” he said. “First of all it covers your behind, so you can say ‘I told you so,’ should allegations prove true.
“Whether they have any information to suggest that there are weapons in houses [in south Lebanon], I doubt it,” he told The Daily Star.
The explosions of suspected Hizbullah arms caches near the southern villages of Khirbet Silim in July and Tayr Felsay in October reignited the debate about the Shiite group’s arsenal.
The events drew international condemnation and the former was labeled “a clear violation of Security Council Resolution 1701,” by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Resolution 1701 was written to bring to a close the Israel’s war on Lebanon in 2006 – in which more than 1,200 Lebanese died, mostly civilians – and stipulates that arms must not be kept in the country outside of state control.
It also expressly forbids the presence of weapons between the Litani River and the Blue Line – the line of Israeli military withdrawal from Lebanon.
Hizbullah officials, when contacted by The Daily Star, declined to comment specifically on the Israeli allegations, but confirmed that an official response would be issued in the coming days.
Last month’s report from Ban to the Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 1559 said that non-state-owned weapons were a risk to Lebanese sovereignty.
“The continued presence of weapons outside the government’s control and activities of militias constitute a challenge to the government’s exclusive military authority,” it said.
Ban called for better monitoring of the porous Lebanon-Syria border in order to “prevent unauthorized flows of weapons, munitions and personnel into [Lebanon].”
Israel admitted over the weekend that it was maintaining spy networks within Lebanon and would continue to do so for as long as Hizbullah posed a threat.
Goksel said that Israel’s claims were designed to elicit a response from Hizbullah.
“They know that they are annoying Hizbullah and prompting them to say something,” he added. “[Israel] has said this a number of times. It keeps the tension going.”
© Copyright The Daily Star 2009.
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