The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to extend the mandate for the world body’s peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon for another year just one day before it was due to expire. The decision to extend the mandate came following tense negotiations with regard to the effectiveness of the mission, amid strong criticism by both the United States and Israel, whom accused the mandated peacekeeping forces of “not doing enough” to stop the Iranian-backed Hezbollah from acquiring and mobilizing arms across southern Lebanon. UNIFIL, which is short for the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, in an international force that was initially established in 1978 with the aim of patrolling Lebanon’s southern border with Israel. After a 2006 war between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, however, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1701, effectively broadening the responsibilities of the UNIFIL mandate, expending the tasks of the peacekeepers with making sure southern Lebanon was “free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons” other than those belonging to the Lebanese government. Since the adoption of resolution 1701, however, intelligence reports indicated clear violations, with the Lebanese Shi’ite militia Hezbollah acquiring and mobilizing more than 100,000 rockets in southern Lebanon, to be use in a future conflagration with Israel. Following the vote, US Ambassador to the United Nations said, “Conditions in South Lebanon are very dangerous today. The clouds of war are gathering. UNIFIL exists to help prevent war from happening again in South Lebanon. It is supposed to do that, in part by helping the Lebanese government to ensure that there are no weapons outside of state control in UNIFIL’s area of operations. We have to be honest, for too long UNIFIL’s leadership has failed to make sure this goal is realized. In particular, UNIFIL commander General Beary’s (Major General Michael Beary) lack of understanding of the threat UNIFIL poses to the region is baffling. At the direction of its patron, Iran, the terrorist organization Hezbollah is stockpiling an offensive arsenal in southern Lebanon. They have thousands of missiles and thousands of trained fighters, all beyond the control of the Lebanese government. It is apparent to anyone who cares to see it,” Haley stressed. Ambassador Haley further noted, however, that the extension of the mandate together with new broader authorities in southern Lebanon, will provide the UNIFIL task force with additional tools to fulfill its responsibilities that are imperative to avoid a new war between Israel and the Iranian backed militia.
It is important to note that Hezbollah’s vast arsenal is considered relatively primitive, as the Iranian backed militia has not succeeded in obtaining precision rockets that can hit within a targeted radius of just a few meters. Hezbullah’s inability to do so is reportedly due to ongoing efforts by Israel’s Air Force to prevent those rockets from being smuggled from Syria to Lebanon, a reality Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared last night, in an address to supporters of his ruling Likud faction, is cause of his government’s aggressive defensive policy.
Hezbollah’s inability to smuggle such advanced weapons from Syria to Lebanon, however, has prompted a new reality in which its benefactor, the Islamic Republic of Iran, started to build factories in both Lebanon and Syria to provide Hezbollah with precision rockets in an effort to develop their strategic capability against Israel. The Iranian efforts were corroborated earlier this week, when Israel’s Director of Military Intelligence Major General Hertzi Halevy warned, during a meeting with UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, that Iranian attempts to produce precision weaponry for Hezbollah on Lebanese soil and to use the Syrian military industry to do so as well, was a very serious development to which Israel could not remain indifferent. Nevertheless, Israel’s attempts to thwart Iran from establishing missile factories in Syria and Lebanon might become increasingly challenging. According to Syrian reports, the Russian military has placed its advanced S-400 anti-aircraft defense system close to the new Iranian missile plant that is meant to build long-range precision rockets. The Russian anti-aircraft System was, according to Israeli officials, the reason behind the latest trip of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Russian resort-city of Sochi, where the Israeli leader met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Netanyahu’s attempts to persuade Putin, in not allowing Iran to establish itself in Syria, has had little impact, as Israeli officials told TV7 that the weight the Islamic Republic currently holds in realizing Moscow’s interests in the war-torn-country are far more significant than the security concerns of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the officials noted that Israel provided the Russian leadership with new intelligence that may grant Israel with enough freedom to assure that it can continue thwarting the smuggling of precision weaponry from Syria to Lebanon.