UN Resolution 1701 Compromised

In a declassified report released this week and published by the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center located at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC), security officials make an official claim that UN Resolution 1701, the UN ceasefire decision that ended last year’s war in northern Israel, ” has been only partially implemented, and the most essential provisions have been left unattended.

In a declassified report released this week and published by the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center located at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC), security officials make an official claim that UN Resolution 1701, the UN ceasefire decision that ended last year’s war in northern Israel, ” has been only partially implemented, and the most essential provisions have been left unattended.

Specifically:

1) South Lebanon was not demilitarized and Hezbollah and the other terrorist organizations remained and were not disarmed;

2) Iran and Syria continue replenishing Hezbollah’s arsenal and rehabilitating its military force;

3) The arms embargo has not been effectively enforced and weapons are still steadily smuggled into Lebanon from Syria;

4) No significant progress has been made on the issue of the abducted IDF soldiers tht triggered the conflict.

This significant Israeli intelligence report warned that once Hezbollah has completed its military rehabilitation, it is liable to change its terrorist policy and renew its attacks against Israel.

This report also states that the process of rehabilitating Hezbollah’s military force was carried out with massive Iranian and Syrian support, in direct contravention of Security Council Resolution 1701. The report says, “Both states are clearly interested in strengthening Hezbollah and using the organization to further their own interests in both Lebanon and the entire region. As far as both are concerned, upgraded Hezbollah military capabilities in Lebanon will enable the organization to defend itself, and will also have an offensive option against Israel when the time comes, in accordance with Iranian and Syrian interests.”

In conclusion, Israeli intelligence notes that the “large rocket arsenal Iran and Syria gave Hezbollah is meant to be used, when the time comes, to exhaust Israel through continued attacks on population centers deep within the country, combined with terrorist attacks” and that during “the past year Iran and Syria did not encourage Hezbollah to renew its attacks against Israel so that it could complete its rehabilitation unhampered and perhaps even out of the fear lest the rocket option be used prematurely” (as it was in The Second Lebanon war).

In conclusion, Israeli intelligence warns that “the rehabilitation of Hezbollah’s military force again poses a new rocket threat for Israel” in the not too distant future.

This ran in FrontPageMagazine.com 8/17/2007