 |
| 12/05/2008 Israeli occupation security officials are playing down concerns of an imminent direct conflict with Hezbollah, Army Radio reported on Monday.
Israel has raised its intelligence alert after clashes erupted in Beirut and Mount Lebanon between Lebanese national opposition supporters on one hand and the authority’s militias (Saad Hariri’s Militiamen and Walid Jumblatt’s) on the other, in which the opposition’s supporters could take control on most of these areas and handing their security to the Lebanese Army.
On Sunday, Israel's Vice Premier Haim Ramon told cabinet members that Lebanon must be viewed as a "Hezbollah state," after what he claimed that the group seized control over the western part of the Lebanese capital over the weekend.
"Lebanon has no government. It is a fiction, there is only Hezbollah," Ramon said during the weekly cabinet meeting. "Hezbollah is directly responsible for everything that happens [in Lebanon], and the organization completely controls the state."
Later in the cabinet meeting, Minister Ami Ayalon called for an emergency meeting of the political-security cabinet to discuss the ongoing crisis in Lebanon and Gaza.
Ayalon said that "the critical situation in the north" and the impending lull in the fighting in Gaza require a special session.
Minister of Religious Services Yitzhak Cohen (Shas) said that "Israel must immediately ask the [United Nations] Security Council to hold renewed discussions over resolution 1701." The minister was referring to the resolution that stopped the Israeli actions against Lebanon during the 34-day between in 2006, maintaining a fragile cease-fire.
According to Cohen "the Lebanese army proved to be a doormat, stepped on by Hezbollah."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel was following the violence in Lebanon closely, but would refrain from intervening. Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai told Army Radio Sunday that Israel was prepared for the possibility that the situation in Lebanon will deteriorate into another civil war.
Vilnai also said the current fighting could end with a Hezbollah takeover of the government. "We need to keep our eyes peeled and be especially sensitive regarding all that is happening there," Vilnai told Army Radio.
"We shouldn't get involved. We need to watch and should follow this very closely even when we are dealing with other fronts," he said, referring to continued fighting against the Hamas resistance group in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has controlled Gaza since last June.
Cabinet Minister Meir Sheetrit said Israel should not yet take any action, but warned that things could change if Hezbollah takes over Lebanon. "I think it's very dangerous, the [possible] situation in which Iran is in fact sitting on our border, and controlling Lebanon," Sheetrit said. "It's really dangerous in the long term because now its plain to everyone that ... Hezbollah is just the long arm of Iran and that's the way we should relate to it."
For the time being, Jerusalem has decided not to issue any official comment on the confrontations between Hezbollah and the Beirut government. But various officials have expressed concern over the escalation and the possible implications for Israel's northern border.
Meanwhile Sunday, a Lebanese security official reported that Israel Air Force warplanes violated Lebanon's airspace and flew over the southern part of the country. "More than four Israeli jets flew over areas near the port city of Tyre," the official said.
IAF jets regularly overfly Lebanon in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The United Nations has called on Israel to stop doing so. The organization says the overflights undermine the credibility of UNIFIL stationed in southern Lebanon to observe a fragile ceasefire in the area. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment