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Israel urges UN action over Hezbollah ‘attack tunnels’
JERUSALEM, Dec 19, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu urged the United Nations Security Council Wednesday to condemn
Hezbollah for digging cross-border “attack tunnels” and to demand Lebanon
prevent such activity from its territory.
Netanyahu’s remarks came ahead of a Security Council meeting to discuss
what Israel says is a network of tunnels dug by the Iranian-backed Shiite
militant group, four of which have been uncovered.
“I call on all the members of 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,”
Netanyahu told foreign media in the Israeli parliament.
Israel also wanted the Security Council “to demand that Lebanon stop
allowing its territory to be allowed to be used as an act of aggression and
its citizens to be used as pawns, to support Israel’s right to defend itself
against Iranian inspired and Iranian conducted aggression,” he said.
On December 4, the army announced an operation dubbed “Northern Shield” to
destroy tunnels it said have been dug under the border by Hezbollah.
Israel fought a devastating war against Hezbollah in 2006 that was halted
by a UN-brokered truce.
Hezbollah is the only group in Lebanon not to have disarmed after the
country’s 1975-1990 civil war.
Netanyahu called the tunnels “an act of war” and accused the Lebanese
government of not preventing their creation.
“The Lebanese government, which should be the first to challenge this and
protest this, is doing nothing at best, and colluding at worst,” he said.
Netanyahu noted that UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon,
has confirmed the existence of the four tunnels, stressing that it must be
given swift and “unlimited access” to observe and document them.
BSS/AFP/RY/19:30 hrs