ISRAEL MAY BEGIN NEW WAR IN LEBANON IN SPRING 2010 – PAPER

RIA Novosti
Nov 6, 2009

DAMASCUS, November 6 (RIA Novosti) – Israel could begin a new military
operation in Lebanon in spring 2010, Jordan’s Ad-Dustour daily wrote
on Friday, citing French parliamentary and military sources.

According to anonymous sources in the French parliament, plans of
possible military operation in Lebanon in spring 2010 were discussed
in France, at a meeting of French, U.S. and Israeli military experts.

The paper said a recent report from the UN secretary general could
serve as an indirect indicator of a possible military operation
in Lebanon. The report concerns the implementation of UN Security
Council Resolution 1701, which prohibits storing weapons in the
security zone between the Litani River and the Blue Line, which is
the Lebanese-Israeli border. The area is under the observation of UN
Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

In the report, "only [Shiite armed group] Hezbollah is accused" of
violating the provisions of the resolution, while "Israel is freed
from any responsibility."

"It gives grounds to think that there are attempts to justify a
[future] Israel military operation in Lebanon," an anonymous source
told the paper.

A change in the deployment pattern of UN peacekeepers or their
withdrawal "will become a clear signal that the Israeli war is
imminent," the paper says.

Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations, Noaf Salaam, warned last
week there were signs of an imminent Israeli attack on his country,
saying that the "pattern of Israeli breaches" constituted a serious
threat to Lebanon. He also said that the increased "escalation in
a fragile and explosive situation" signaled Israeli plans of an
imminent attack.

The situation in southern Lebanon became extremely tense in July
this year, when an explosion occurred in the security zone near the
Lebanese-Israeli border in the town of Khirbat Silim. Israel and
the United States said the explosion was set off by a detonator in
a Hezbollah weapons store prohibited by the UN Security Council.