Friday, July 02, 2010

If Hezbollah Is Trying To Clear UNIFIL Out Of The Way--Can War Be Far Behind? (Updated)

Indications are that these 'spontaneous' protests were organized.
If Hezbollah is behind this, then can the next Hezbollah-Israel war be far behind?
UN 'concerned' by Lebanese protests against peacekeepers

A United Nations official on Thursday expressed concern over protests by villagers against UN peacekeeping troopsdeployed in southern Lebanon.

"I'm very concerned about the incidents that took place and I know that the Security Council members are also concerned," Michael Williams, the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, told a news conference.

Williams, who is scheduled to brief the Security Council on Lebanon this month, said villagers staged 20 separate protests this week against the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The protests came during a maximum deployment exercise on Tuesday by UNIFIL, charged with overseeing a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

..."Some of these (protests) may have been something spontaneous in the street, but some were clearly organised," Williams said, singling out one incident that he said involved around 100 people.

UNIFIL spokesperson Neeraj Singh told AFP the exercise was a "regular activity" with no special operations and the Lebanese army had been fully informed of the nature and purpose of the exercise...
UPDATE: Israel Matzav writes about another development in the area:
Based on both Israeli and American sources, the Wall Street Journal reports that Iran has provided Syria with a sophisticated radar system that will allow Syria to monitor the skies over Lebanon and Israel. The result may be to make an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear weapons facilities more difficult to accomplish. Additionally, the radar is likely to help Iran's and Syria's Hezbullah ally to more accurately fire missiles at Israeli cities.
Read the whole thing.

Hat tip: Soccer Dad

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