By JEREMY SHARON, TOI Nov 21, 9:22 pm
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen warns the UN Security Council that a regional war is likely if resolution 1701, which calls for the disarmament of the Hezbollah terror group, is not fully implemented.
“For the good of regional stability and to avoid further escalation, the next session of the UN Security Council must adopt a totally different approach in order to end the dangerous violations by Hezbollah and other terrorist groups on the border,” Cohen writes to the Security Council, Channel 12 News reports.
Hezbollah, Hamas and other terror groups in southern Lebanon have routinely fired rockets at Israeli cities and attacked IDF forces on the Israel-Lebanon border ever since Hamas’s October 7 atrocities, resulting in a number of Israeli fatalities.
The IDF has attacked Hezbollah operatives and positions as a result, killing dozens of their fighters.
UN Security Council resolution 1701 brought to an end the Second Lebanon War in 2006, and called for the disarmament of all non-state armed forces in Lebanon, as well as for the region between the Israel-Lebanon border and the Litani River to be freed of all armed forces other than the Lebanese army and the UN’s peacekeeping mission UNIFIL.
These clauses of the resolution were never implemented, and Hezbollah has become a heavily armed terror militia. It claims to have tens of thousands of fighters and possesses a reported arsenal of some 150,000 rockets and missiles of different types.
The UN has provided Resolution 1701 with UN forces Stationen in southern Lebanon in order to ensure that no armed groups such as Hezballah can install their hundreds of thousands of Rackets, all aimed at every ich of Israel. Since these UN forces have not done their assigned task, Israel may feel the imperative to clean them out. Israel must demand of the UN to either do their job or, if ghey continue to be “unwilling”, to pay in Hard Cash for this operation. Of course, not even I am as naive as to hope that any such resolution could be passed. The only thing to expect is a sharply toned resolution against Israel forbidding any reaction to rocket attack. These clever Israelis/Zionists/Jews have Iron Dome, Wall, etc to protect themselves.
There is a long history to Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm, despite the UN mandate for them to do so. Iran is defiant, and insists that Hezbollah has a right to be armed. Lebanon is incapable of enforcing 1701. The UN does not have any ability to enforce their own resolutions! So who exactly is going to see that Hezbollah disarms? It seems it is only Israel that is motivated to get the job done.
So I am unsure of the purpose of Eli Cohen’s presentation to the UNSC, unless it is simply to warn the international community that a regional war is about to take place, and that Hezbollah is the cause, not the victim. Israel has responded when attacked by Hezbollah, and Hezbollah has attacked Israel regularly.
At the start of the War with Hamas it appeared that Hezbollah was not that interested in starting a war with Israel (or should I say Iran was not interested in using its last line of defense, Hezbollah, at that time). Hezbollah is busy in Syria at the moment. But should Iran direct Hezbollah to attack Israel, their 120,000 rockets would be a serious danger to Israel.
Israel is likely preparing for all eventualities, including Hezbollah’s involvement from the north. When Israel feels it is necessary, they attack Hezbollah positions and they have killed a Hamas commander who was in Lebanon.
I could not find much additional information online about this speech at the UN.
Thank you for this article.