The head of Israel’s diplomatic delegation to the United Nations met with the commander of the UN’s Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Friday to deal with flak over continued Israeli Air Force reconnaissance flights and other complaints.
Dan Carmon, acting head of the delegation, sat down with Maj.-Gen. Claudio Graziano to discuss the latter’s accusations Thursday that Israel had violated UN Security Council Resolution 1701, the ceasefire agreement that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
Graziano said that continued Israel Air Force overflights in Lebanese airspace and Israel's refusal to submit maps of areas on which it dropped cluster bombs during the war constituted a "permanent violation of 1701."
He also referred to the village of Ghajar, which straddles the Israel-Lebanon border, as "a permanent area under occupation", in spite of Israel's cooperation with the UN in drawing the border.
Carmon reportedly reprimanded Graziano during their meeting for ignoring Hizbullah’s repeated and numerous violations of the ceasefire agreement, an issue raised by another group, the International-Lebanese Committee for UN Security Council Resolution 1559, as well. Toni Nissi, general coordinator for the volunteer committee, referred to UNIFIL in a news conference Saturday as “hostages of Hizbullah.”
Nissi’s group monitors the implementation of a number of UN resolutions, including 1701, which he said Hizbullah has violated “big time, and not only by hiding its weapons in warehouses in the south.”
The Israel Air Force has continued its flyovers in order to monitor the terrorist group’s rearmament. Rearming is a violation of Resolution 1701.
Exactly two years ago, Hizbullah terror leaders said that the group was not obligated by the ceasefire resolution. At the time, deputy chief terrorist Sheikh Naim Qassam declared, “The UN decision does not obligate us and it does not carry weight with us. What Israel did not succeed in taking during war, it will not succeed with diplomacy and politics.”
On the issue of weapons smuggling into Lebanon, Graziano told reporters at a New York news conference Thursday that he could not ensure the area under his jurisdiction would be impenetrable. He also admitted that his forces made no attempt to prevent arms smuggling from Syria, as demanded by the UN Security Council, because the Lebanese government had not asked them to.
Despite a clear UN resolution and a 19-year-old national agreement calling for the disarmament of all non-governmental militias, Lebanon's cabinet voted earlier this month to allow Hizbullah to keep its weapons arsenal. The government decision specifically approved Hizbullah activities aimed at Israel.
Israel’s Cabinet also recently received an intelligence report on Syria’s latest weapons deliveries to Hizbullah – including the very advanced SA-8 Gecko surface-to-air anti-aircraft missile system.
Graziano stated there is no evidence of arms smuggling nor has there been movement of armed gunmen, and said UNIFIL forces enjoy excellent cooperation from Hizbullah terrorists and the local Lebanese population.
“At this moment, Hizbullah is one of [the] parties that agrees with 1701,” he said, insisting that no one was armed south of the Litani River, with the exception of UNIFIL troops, Lebanese soldiers, and “hunters.”