Lebanon too is girding up to counter the US-Israeli UNSC motion condemning Hizballah’s tunnels which is due to be aired on Wednesday, Dec. 19. The fourth tunnel was unearthed on Sunday. Israel will present evidence of the tunnels violating its sovereignty and providing a gateway for Hizballah to conduct cross-border raids for terror. The US plans to use this evidence for a motion to declare Hizballah a terrorist organization.However, as a precondition for gaining the votes of all 15 members, the Israeli account must be backed up by UNIFIL’s confirmation. There lies the first rub. It is highly doubtful that the international force’s commander Gen. Stafano De Col, of Italy will provide this confirmation.
The Lebanese government’s strategy designed by President Michel Aoun was outlined in detail by the London-based Arab paper Al-Hayat on Saturday.
These are the high points:
Hizballah tunnel issue goes into diplomatic fog. Hamas relocates terror to West Bank front
- None of the tunnels Hizballah is accused of digging for the purpose of terrorism have exits on the Israeli side of the border.
- Israeli claims they were excavated as of 2013. Lebanon has proofs that some date back to 2006 and are decrepit and in disuse.
- One or two may have reached under the “Blue Line” (which the UN marked out on the border in 2000), but the Lebanese delegation will insist that this is not a significant violation of UNSC Resolution 1701, which terminated the 2006 Israeli-Hizballah war. In contrast, they will point to Israel as committing far more substantial infringements– both in the course of its Operation Northern Shield and beforehand.
- UNIFIL has no proof of where the tunnels start (because it has no mandate to enter private homes on the Lebanese side of the border.)
- Lebanese sources admit quite openly that President Michel Aoun’s presentation of the Lebanese case to the Security Council is designed to consolidate his cooperation with Hizballah as the dominant force in Beirut for establishing a stable government. A transitional administration is currently in office. Therefore, if the Israeli government had hoped its tunnel operation would loosen the ties the president and Lebanese army maintain with Hizballah, Aoun has turned the tables by using it as a tool for further cementing the partnership. READ MORE
