Press TV January 6, 2009
Hezbollah has stepped up security measures on the Lebanese border in response to the full-scale Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip.
Citing an unnamed Lebanese official, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Tuesday that the Lebanese resistance is fully prepared not to allow “Israel a chance to avenge its defeat in the July 2006 war and has therefore raised its alert level for defense purposes.”
Israel is expected to take advantage of the transition in the White House “to embark on a new adventure” and change the status quo on the Lebanese border, the Al-Hayat report adds.
In a recent report, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy revealed that Israel’s determination to curb Hezbollah’s military and political prowess has strengthened the likelihood of another Israel-Lebanon war.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Lebanese army announced that at least six Israeli warplanes had flown over several regions of the country in violation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which put an end to the 33-day war in the summer of 2006.
The Israeli overflights come as Israel has called up thousands of its reserve troops and put some of them along its northern border with Lebanon earlier this week.
Author of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy report Nicholas Blanford told Press TV correspondent Ali Rizk in an October interview that UN Resolution 1701, which ended the second Israeli war on Lebanon, would never be sufficient to maintain calm.
“Yes, 1701 stopped the war obviously in 2006. It stopped the fighting. I mean it saved the Israelis, the Israelis were obviously in deep trouble as various internal investigations and reports and commissions have elaborated,” said Blanford.
“It was kind of an unfinished war in many respects. Hezbollah, for their part, recognized Israeli unease and unhappiness with the outcome of the war,” he continued.
According to Blanford, the US presidential elections as well as the upcoming elections in Israel, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran are key political developments that could easily ‘trigger a war’.
Other political analysts also believe that a third Israeli war against Lebanon may be in the offing.
“This is not the first time that the Israelis threaten Lebanon. There have been a lot of threats ever since the end of the July war in 2006 and its humiliating defeat has been a blow to the whole Israeli military institution,” says political analyst Ibrahim Moussawi.
While Israel claims it has no intention to open another front during its war on the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah has announced that the Lebanese nation must maintain vigilance and be prepared to repel any possible attack by Tel Aviv.
Hezbollah has, however, dismissed Israeli allegations that it has plans to go to war with Israel.
Posts
