Key UN Official Concerned Over Arms Flowing to Hizbullah in Lebanon

(New York Sun) Benni Avni - After briefing the Security Council Thursday, Secretary General Ban's special envoy to Beirut, Michael Williams, a Briton, admitted the obvious: several recent incidents prove the presence of arms south of Lebanon's Litani River in violation of Security Council resolutions. He added that speeches by the leader of Hizbullah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, force him to "assume that there's weaponry smuggled into the country." Jerusalem has long argued that despite the deployment of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon in the aftermath of its 2006 war against Hizbullah, the Iranian-backed terror organization is now more heavily-armed than ever, with tens of thousands of warheads aimed at major Israeli population centers. But to date no UN official acknowledged knowing anything about such arming, which would constitute a violation of Security Council resolutions. UNIFIL's official position is that to date it has found "no evidence" of illicit arms in its area of jurisdiction south of the Litani - despite at least three major explosions that rocked southern villages recently, indicating the presence of weapon caches.


2010-11-19 08:23:43

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