by Ariel Kahana, Yoni Hersch, Eli Leon, Lilach Shoval and Israel Hayom Staff
Ahead of special Security Council meeting on Hezbollah tunnels, Israel says it has "clear-cut" intelligence proving Lebanese military regularly helps group violate U.N. resolution
Some two weeks
after Israel launched Operation Northern Shield to eliminate Hezbollah's
cross-border attack tunnels from Lebanon, Israel has said it will
present the U.N. Security Council with damning evidence proving that the
Lebanese army has been helping Hezbollah in its excavation efforts in
violation of the U.N.'s resolutions.
The council was set to meet on Wednesday,
days after the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon concluded that
the tunnels snaking under the Israel-Lebanon border and jutting into
Israeli territory were a violation of United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1701.
The resolution, which ended the 2006 Second
Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah, prohibits the presence of any
Lebanese armed group south of the Litani River, apart from the central
government's military, known as the Lebanese Armed Forces.
On Tuesday, Israeli Ambassador to the
United Nations Danny Danon said that "now that UNIFIL has confirmed that
the Hezbollah tunnels are a severe breach of Resolution 1701, the
Security Council is duty-bound to use every means at its disposal
against Hezbollah, which continues its buildup under the auspices of the
Lebanese government."
Danon plans to emphasize that Lebanese
troops have given their tacit approval and turned a blind eye to
Hezbollah's tunneling activity, effectively sanctioning it.
Danon will present what he calls
"clear-cut intelligence evidence" that prove that the LAF and Hezbollah
are coordinating their activity and allowing the terrorist group to
undermine Israel's efforts to tackle these tunnels.
Danon will also unveil new information demonstrating Hezbollah's violations of Resolution 1701.
"There is a clear line of communication
between LAF elements and the terrorist organization; those elements help
Hezbollah destabilize the region," Danon said on Tuesday. "Under the
Lebanese government's watch, Hezbollah has created an entire network of
tunnels and factories for precision-guided missiles; this is a brazen
violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution but also endangers the
lives of the residents of southern Lebanon, who are being used as human
shields."
Danon vowed that "Israel will act with force against Hezbollah and any other entity that tries to undermine its sovereignty."
According to Danon, "The 2006 resolution
has already said, loud and clear, that Hezbollah must not continue its
terrorist activity against Israel, but this has not stopped the
organization from staying the course, and now it is trying to breach
into Israeli territory using terror tunnels. Reality on the ground has
shown that Hezbollah could not care less about what the Security Council
has to say."
Israeli officials have repeatedly said that
if Hezbollah attacks Israel, the Israeli government would hold the
Lebanese government accountable.
According to a report in the Lebanese paper
Al-Akhbar on Tuesday, Israel asked the U.S. to pressure the Lebanese
government to ensure that it cooperates with UNIFIL and helps locate and
destroy the cross-border tunnels.
IDF officials noted that Hezbollah has been
trying to block access to the the tunnels in recent days. IDF officials
dismissed a Lebanese media report that the LAF forced the Israeli
military to halt its efforts to expose tunnels in certain areas near the
border. "The operation continues in several locations, both overtly and
covertly," the IDF said.
Ariel Kahana, Yoni Hersch, Eli Leon, Lilach Shoval and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/12/19/israel-to-un-lebanese-army-is-helping-hezbollah/
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