UN headquarters. Illustrative. By Joshua Spurlock
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon may be overseeing over a decade of general calm, but the United States isn’t content with the effort to truly keep the peace. In particular, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley highlighted Hezbollah’s arms buildup, which is in violation of the U.N. Resolution that ended the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war. She said she agreed with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres that they want the efforts of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to be enhanced to “prevent the spread of illegal arms in southern Lebanon.”
Said Ambassador Haley in comments released by her office, “These arms—which are almost entirely in the hands of Hezbollah terrorists—threaten the security and stability of the region. UNIFIL must increase its capacity and commitment to investigating and reporting these violations. The United States will continue to raise the threat posed by Hezbollah as we seek significant improvements to UNIFIL when the Security Council renews its mandate this month.”
Hezbollah has long been a quasi-military in Lebanon, as well as a terrorist group with a global reach. It has been accused of involvement in attacks in Europe and South America, as well as the Middle East. And Israel, the primary target of Hezbollah terror, knows full well how dangerous Hezbollah is, as well as how much they should be if UNIFIL was more effective.
The IDF Spokesperson recently noted to Twitter, “Hezbollah has over 120,000 missiles in their arsenal. They’re supposed to have zero.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, August 8, 2017)