BICOM

The UK Ambassador to the UN condemned Hezbollah’s “blatant disregard for UN resolutions” in a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting yesterday to debate Hezbollah tunnels into Israel.

Ambassador Karen Pierce added that: “Israel has the right to defend itself against Hezbollah”. The US representative, Rodney Hunter, said: “The US strongly supports Israel’s efforts to defend its sovereignty and unconditionally affirms Israel’s right to self-defence.”

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, accused the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) of ‘working for Hezbollah’. Danon said that information about the tunnels given to the LAF by Israel via the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was passed on to Hezbollah. This, according to Danon: “Enabled the terrorist organisation to conceal the tunnel’s operations and thwart Israel’s defensive actions.”

UNIFIL has investigated the tunnels uncovered by Israel and agreed they constitute a violation of UNSC Resolution 1701, which formalised the end of the 2006 Lebanon war between Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanon’s Ambassador to the UN, Amal Mudallali, accused the international community of double standards, denying that Lebanon was in breach of Resolution 1701. She said: “The Lebanese state did not commit any violations, while the violations on the Israeli side were done by the Israeli government.” Kuwait, currently a non-permanent Security Council member, accused Israel of exaggerating the severity of the tunnels and said Israel was in violation of Resolution 1701.

Before the UN meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu asked the Security Council to: “Condemn Hezbollah’s wanton acts of aggression; to designate Hezbollah, in its entirety, as a terrorist organisation; to press for heightened sanctions against Hezbollah.” He also said the UN should: “Support Israel’s right to defend itself against Iranian-inspired and Iranian-conducted aggression.” He did, however, say that the Lebanese army was not aware of the tunnels before Israel launched its operation to uncover them.