Beirut papers warn Lebanon back on brink of war
Monday, July 12, 2010
By: ICEJ News

Lebanese army sends extra troops south to reinforce UNIFIL

Lebanon has ordered 5,000 extra soldiers to the country’s south following attacks on UN troops and Israel’s exposure of Hizbullah positions, prompting Lebanese newspapers to warn on Monday that the 2006 “July war is not over” as “both parties look ready to leap back into action.”

On the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War on July 12, 2006, the Al-Akhbar newspaper claimed that both adversaries “are prepared [for renewed conflict] both in terms of capacities and incentives."

A column in the As-Safir newspaper today also argued that in May Israel expanded the Lebanon war to now encompass a war “on all Arabs and on Muslims in Turkey” through its seizure of the Gaza aid flotilla.

In addition, an editorial in French-language Lebanon newspaper L'Orient Le Jour claimed Israel is provoking a new conflict by falsely contending that “Hizbullah took the state hostage, revamped and reinforced its arsenal and now is attacking UN peacekeepers via the people of southern Lebanon, who are at their beck and call."

The comments refer to Israel’s disclosure last week of Hizbullah weapons caches and command centers in south Lebanese village, as well as reports that UNIFIL patrols have been attacked by local villagers as they approach towns where Hizbullah is known to operate.

Two weeks ago, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon suggested in a report to the Security Council that Israel was to blame for the recent border tensions after it claimed Syria was transferring Scud-D missiles to Hizbullah. At the same time, the Spanish commander of UNIFIL denied reports that his forces were being attacked by villagers, insisting his troops had total freedom of movement in south Lebanon.

Those positions were undermined last Friday, however, when the Security Council condemned the recent series of attacks on UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon and UNIFIL commander Maj. Gen. Alberto Asarta Cuevas sent an open letter to surrounding communities urging them to discuss their grievances directly with his troops. The moves were forced by France, after French troops in UNIFIL took the brunt of the recent assaults.

Citing the increased levels of violence, Lebanon’s army has now decided to deploy an extra brigade of 5,000 soldiers south to reinforce the UN troops. The move was also prompted by the IDF’s release of video and charts exposing Hizbullah positions in south Lebanon.

The IDF on Friday showed journalists previously classified aerial photographs of a unit of 90 Hizbullah militiamen operating in a village where they were storing weapons close to hospitals and schools. Israel estimates that Hizbullah has an arsenal of 40,000 short-and medium-range rockets and a force of 20,000 fighters, around a third of which have undergone combat training in Iran.

The Shi’ite terror militia responded on Sunday by boasting that it had its own list of Israeli targets it would hit in the event of war.