by Lilach Shoval, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
If no action is taken, Iranian weapon production lines will become operational in the foreseeable future, defense officials warn • Israel is focusing its efforts on diplomatic front, but international community is presently apathetic to Israel's position.
A Hezbollah fighter stands
guard with a missile positioned nearby
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Photo credit: Reuters  |
Israel's intensive diplomatic campaign in recent weeks, which included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting
with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, trips by senior
Israeli defense officials to the United States and more, comes on the
heels of updated situation assessments within the defense establishment
suggesting that if nothing is done, the weapon manufacturing facilities
Iran is building in Syria and Lebanon, Israel's neighbors to the north, will become operational in the foreseeable future.
Behind closed doors, senior defense officials
said that from Israel's perspective, Iran's weapons factories and
deepening foothold in Syria "cross a red line."
This week, Netanyahu told
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres that Iran was building sites to
produce precision-guided missiles, both in Lebanon and Syria, and
stressed that Israel could not come to terms with such a reality.
As early as several months ago, reports
emerged that Iran was constructing weapon manufacturing facilities in
Lebanon to upgrade Hezbollah's missile capabilities from statistical to
precision-based, to pose a far more credible threat to sensitive targets
in Israel.
Currently, despite the tens of thousands of
missiles and rockets in its arsenal, Hezbollah lacks precision missiles
and has attempted to smuggle them into Lebanon through Syria in recent
years. In many cases, those weapons smuggling convoys have been
destroyed in a variety of ways in operations attributed to Israel, while
Israel, for its part, has mostly maintained a policy of ambiguity on
the matter.
Defense officials also noted the inaccuracy of
reports alleging that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri tried
preventing Iran from building the weapon production lines on Lebanese
soil. While he did in fact ask Hezbollah to stop short of completing
construction of the missile factories, the defense officials said,
"Hezbollah doesn't pay attention to Hariri."
Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor
Lieberman have repeatedly spoken out on the matter, stressing Israel's
position that Iran's efforts to entrench itself militarily in Syria and
Lebanon was unacceptable and crosses a red line.
After his meeting with Guterres earlier this
week, Lieberman even detailed Iran's plans to build air and naval bases
in Syria and bring around 10,000 Shiite mercenaries into the country.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday
that the Iranian presence in southern Syria will continue and even
expand, "in light of Israel and the United States' attempts to change
the regional balance of control."
Defense officials who spoke to Israel Hayom
this week said Israel's efforts were focused on the diplomatic front,
but that continued construction of Iranian weapons factories in Syria
and Lebanon, in addition to Iranian military bases in Syria, crossed a
red line.
The international community, according to the
officials, is presently apathetic to Israel's stance on the matter. Even
the Americans, the officials said, despite listening and understanding
the issue in theory, apparently will do nothing.
Guterres, meanwhile, welcomed the extension of
the longtime U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon peacekeeping operation in
the south of that country, and reiterated support for the mission's
commander, who has drawn criticism from the U.S.
Lilach Shoval, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=45051
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