IDF brass warns UN chief Hezbollah is growing in strength
Head of the IDF Intelligence Directorate, Major General Herzi Halevi, met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and briefed him on the intelligence situation in the various fronts, stressing that the UN could do more to prevent Hezbollah's strengthening and its threatening of Israel.
Halevi briefed Guterres on the intelligence situation in the various sectors, and explained the Iranian establishment in Syria and Hezbollah's power structure in Lebanon. He stressed that Iran's desire to produce precision weapons for Hezbollah on Lebanese soil and in the Syrian military industry is a serious development that Israel can not be indifferent to.
"The consolidation of Iran and the Shiite axis in Syria, and the strengthening of Hezbollah in Lebanon are two processes that could lead to an undesirable escalation in the northern front," stated Halevi.
According to Halevi, Hezbollah is tightening its hold on Lebanon. He stated that UNIFIL holds an important role with Hezbollah and could exert pressure and hinder Hezbollah's efforts to strengthen its position. Halevi stressed that more could be done on the UN's part, not only to preserve peace but to prevent the next war
Earlier on Monday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah broadcast a speech the Al-Manar television network, in which he declared the organization's victory in the war against ISIS along the Syrian border. During his speech, Nasrallah also managed to sneak in a zinger against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying that Netanyahu and senior Israeli officials "are the ones crying today about ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
"Israel is an enterprise of occupation and hegemony, the United States is a hegemony enterprise, and ISIS and the terrorist organizations are the extermination enterprise of every Muslim, Christian, Yazidi and everywhere. ISIS was supposed to destroy our region, the army and our institutions, delivering it santized and cooked for the US and Israel."
Nasrallah added that as a result of ISIS's defeat, "Who is crying over ISIS in Syria and Iraq? Netanyahu and senior Israeli officials," adding that "they are the ones who cry and scream, they are the ones who have a problem with the Trump administration, whose priority now is to eliminate ISIS, the same Trump government that admitted it was the Obama administration that created ISIS. This is why it is impossible to claim there is a difference between liberation of South Lebanon (Hezbollah's attempts to conquer the Israeli Golan Heights) and this campaign (against ISIS). It is a continuation of the campaign against Israel."
