'Hizbullah more armed than most gov'ts'

Photo by: APBy JPOST.COM STAFF

28/04/2010 08:03

The Jerusalem Post

Gates appears to confirm Syria provided guerrilla group with Scuds.

 

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday night warned of Hizbullah's alarming military capabilities, and appeared to give an official Washington confirmation that Syria had indeed provided the guerrilla group with Scud missiles.

“Syria and Iran are providing Hizbullah with rockets and missiles of ever-increasing capabilities,” he said. “Hizbullah has far more rockets and missiles than most governments in the world.”

Gates’ comments came after a meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Pentagon, during which Iran and the rearming of Hizbullah were major topics.

Reports of the alleged Scud transfer surfaced in Kuwait’s Al-Rai newspaper earlier this month. Israel subsequently issued a stern warning that it would consider attacking both Syrian and Lebanese targets in response to a Scud attack on its territory.

 

Egypt then warned of a new escalation between Israel and Lebanon and sent a letter Tuesday to US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in an effort to “defuse tensions” between the two countries

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak reassured his Lebanese counterpart, Sa’ad Hariri, on Tuesday that Israel does not plan to attack his country.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren told CNN that although "the fact of the matter is the Syrians have been providing missiles to Hizbullah in Lebanon, Israel has “no intention of attacking Lebanon, Syria or anybody else in the Middle East.”  

Hariri: Unity best defense against Israel

The Daily Star.com
By Nafez Qawas
Daily Star correspondent
Thursday, February 11, 2010

BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri said late Wednesday Lebanon will stand united against ongoing Israeli threats. Addressing delegations of Beiruti families at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center (BIEL), Hariri also urged massive participation in the February 14 rally to mark five years since the assassination, in 2005, of his father former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The Union of Beiruti Families held a dinner in BIEL to mark the election of its new board.

Hariri said Sunday’s rally should renew the Lebanese’s trust in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). “Let’s offer the world a national Lebanese panorama, let’s us tell the world there will be no compromises concerning the STL,” he added.

Hariri stressed that national unity was the “best and most efficient” manner to confront Israeli threats. “There is a flow of Israeli threats facing Lebanon today and those threats should not be handled as mere media messages. Those threats are the equivalent of daily violations to Resolution 1701 and a clear announcement of Israeli intentions toward Lebanon,” he said.

Security Council Resolution 1701 put an end to the 2006 summer war with Israel.

Israeli officials have warned repeatedly in recent weeks that any attack by Lebanon’s Hizbullah will spark a tough response.

Last week, Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem warned Israelis that Syria would back Lebanon in any war against Lebanon.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, meanwhile, said Damascus had “crossed a red line” and warned Syria its army would be defeated and its regime would collapse in a future conflict.

The prime minister urged the international community to assume its responsibilities concerning the repeated Israeli threats against Lebanon.

“National unity is the most effective weapon in our hands to face Israeli threats,” Hariri said. “This is a reality that should be known by each and every Lebanese from north to south.”

The premier stressed that Israel was betting on instigating divisions among the Lebanese. He added that “losing national unity would lead to a loss of Lebanon’s peace and stability.

Hariri said Lebanon would not gamble with its stability and national unity, and “refuses to be an easy target.”

“It’s not a secret that Israel has vicious intentions toward Lebanon because Israel is the enemy,” Hariri added.

Tackling the Rafik Hariri commemoration, Hariri said the participation of Lebanese in Sunday’s event would be a message to the world that no compromise concerning the STL would occur.

“What we have already achieved on the path toward justice and truth deserves that we continue to struggle for and to present to the world a national Lebanese scene that enforces trust in the STL,” Hariri added.

The STL, which was established by UN Security Council resolutions 1664 and 1775, investigates Rafik Hariri’s assassination and other crimes targeting politicians as well as journalists between 2005 and 2008.

Hariri told Beiruti families on Wednesday that he shared his father’s fondness of the Lebanese capital. “Rafik Hariri was convinced in the role, the message and the exceptional status Beirut held,” he said.

The prime minister added that the capital was a symbol of “unity, culture, and coexistence.”

He said he refused all attempts to divide Beirut, adding that Christian and Muslim Beirutis sought a “unified capital.”

Hariri said he refused to allow the spell of civil divisions to also cast a shadow over Beirut.

The prime minister was implicitly responding to calls by Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun to divide Beirut into three electoral districts during the municipal elections scheduled for June.

“Beirut is the capital of Lebanon, and in the capital there is no place for divisions or segregation,” Hariri said.

Note: Propaganda and threats towards Israel, pouring out of the mouths of IRAN, SYRAI, LEBANON, HAMA/GAZA, "daily", if not "hourly" ... IF threats were pennies, Israel would become the most wealthy of all nations in the entire world!
BeeSting

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US State Dept concerned about Hizbullah arming in Lebanon

By JPOST.COM STAFF
31/01/2010 12:13

A senior adviser to US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Jeffrey D. Feltman, said on Sunday in an interview with Al-Hayat that he is concerned about hostilities breaking out between Israel and Lebanon.

According to Feltman, while the US government has no specific evidence about such a possibility, he is worried about reports of arms flowing to Hizbullah.

The senior US diplomat said that Washington contends that the weaponry is arriving into southern Lebanon in violation of UN resolution 1701, which ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

Note: He's "worried about reports of arms flowing to Hizbullah" but not worried about the arms and military training of the Palestinians in the West Bank!!! Hypocrisy shines its light on our government when it comes to who is arming who, all being enemies of Israel! BeeSting

Israel urged to widen any future Lebanon conflict to Syria

The Daily Star.com
Invading Bekaa Valley would strike ‘Real blow’ to Hizbullah
By Dalila Mahdawi
Daily Star staff
Saturday, January 30, 2010

BEIRUT: The Israeli state must take into account Syria’s role in supporting Hizbullah in any future war with the Lebanese group, an Israeli security analyst said on Friday. Renewed hostilities could also see Israel launch a ground invasion of the Bekaa to cut Syrian supply routes to the Shiite group, Jonathan Spyer, senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center, wrote in the Jerusalem Post. Hizbullah officials contacted by The Daily Star declined to comment on the story.

“Any future strike at Hizbullah that does not take into account its status as a client of Syria is unlikely to land a decisive blow,” he said, citing a recent report in the British magazine Jane’s Defence Weekly which claimed that Syria had supplied the Shiite group with missiles capable of hitting central Israel.

“The logic of confrontation in Lebanon suggests that Syria may find it hard to avoid direct engagement in a future Israel-Hizbullah clash,” Spyer said. The “point of no return” would be if Damascus provided anti-aircraft devices to Hizbullah to use during Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace.

The analyst also said that “if Israel wants … to strike a real blow against Hizbullah, this implies an Israeli ground incursion into the Bekaa” and areas close to the Syrian border, which allegedly now host most of the group’s military infrastructure.

Tensions between Israel and Lebanon have mounted in recent months, with Beirut accusing Israel of running espionage rings across the country. Earlier this month Tel Aviv blamed Hizbullah for planting 300 kilograms of explosives near the Blue Line border.

Last week Israeli minister without portfolio Yossi Peled said he believed another conflict with Lebanon was “only a matter of time,” prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deny his government was seeking a war. In a meeting Wednesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quoted by Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot as saying Israel had no “intentions to attack Syria or Lebanon.” Barak has in the past, however, said Israel would not only target Hizbullah but also Lebanon’s government and infrastructure in a future conflict.

During his own meeting with Mubarak on Thursday, Lebanese Prime Minister nevertheless said Beirut took all Israeli threats “seriously.”

“Any threat against Lebanese territory, whether in the south, Bekaa, [the Beirut suburbs of] Dahiyeh or any other region in Lebanon is a threat against all of Lebanon and the Lebanese government,” Hariri told reporters, calling for Arab solidarity to “counter these threats.”

Spyer said that the “ominous statements” by Israeli officials were not intended to announce the arrival of a war but rather to warn Syrian officials “that they should not think their alliance with Hizbullah is cost free.” A report published by Al-Liwaa newspaper last week claimed Lebanon could be dragged into a possible war with Israel as early as March.

The Israeli state launched a devastating 34-day war on Lebanon in July 2006 after Hizbullah members captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid. – With additional reporting by Wassim Mroueh

Note: cartoon and photo added by BeeSting.