BICOM

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Ron Prosor, yesterday asked the UN Security Council to prevent the rearming of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and called on the European Union to label the organisation as a terror group.

In a letter to the Security Council, Prosor pointed to suspicions that a large explosion in the southern Lebanese town of Tair Harfa on Monday was a Hezbollah weapons depot, saying “This explosion offers yet another reminder to the world about the grave danger before our eyes in Lebanon … Hezbollah has built its arsenal to unprecedented levels, amassing 50,000 deadly missiles.” Prosor called on the international community to place “concrete steps on the ground,” to stop the steady Hezbollah rearmament since the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Prosor also said, “The time has come for European countries to recognize Hezbollah for what it really is – an international terrorist organisation.” Although the United States already categorises Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation, the European Union is yet to do so. However, that may change if an investigation by Bulgarian authorities concludes that Hezbollah orchestrated an attack on Israeli tourists there in July.

In separate developments at the UN yesterday, a Security Council committee approved sanctions against two Iranian shipping companies after they violated a UN arms embargo on Tehran by delivering weapons to the Syrian government. Secondly, the UN General Assembly adopted resolutions condemning human rights abuses in Iran and Syria. The resolution on Iran expressed particular concern at instances of torture, while the resolution on Syrian condemned “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights,” by Syrian authorities.