“Nasrallah’s control over south Lebanon complete despite presence of UN troops”
Majdi Halabi writes that Hezbollah has strengthened its control in southern Lebanon in spite of UN monitoring in the area. This scenario was predicted and warned about during Finland’s UN presidency, when Finland’s Foreign Ministry –under the direction of former FM, Erkki Tuomioja– placed all of its energy into building a broad consensus within the EU, for a ceasefire and an upgrading of the mandate for UNIFIL forces currently patroling the area.
“Hizbullah’s control in the south is absolute not only in civilian matters, but also when it comes to military affairs. Recently, many Hizbullah flags were hung on 10-meter high (roughly 30 feet) flagpoles under the open eyes of UNIFIL and Lebanese troops, and while the IDF observed this from border outposts. The flags were placed there with no resistance or even protest on the part of Israel, and it appears we are back to the situation that prevailed here following the withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.”
Since then, Syria has allowed the free flow of arms to continue into Lebanon, as well as invading once more to establish bunkers and who knows what else, while allowing the Fattah al-Islam to establish a beach head inside Palestinian refugee camps.
The only focus the EU (Finnish presidency) had concerning the Lebanon/Israeli war was to stop it, which meant little for the overall stability of the region if the Hezbollah were to maintain its direct feed of weapons from Iran via Syria. So all this means that little has changed, with a resuming of hostilities being not a matter of “if” but when. More here. *L* KGS
