| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Hezbollah 'tripled' number of rockets in two years: Israel |
| 2008-07-10 |
| Hezbollah now has three times more rockets than it had when Israel went to war with the Lebanese militia two years ago, Israeli public radio cited intelligence officials as telling a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Members of the security cabinet were told Hezbollah has an arsenal of 40,000 rockets ready to be fired at Israel, three times more than in July 2006 when Israel launched a devastating war in southern Lebanon after the militia captured two soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had called Wednesday's meeting of the security cabinet to discuss what he said were violations by the Shiite Hezbollah of UN Resolution 1701 which ended the 34-day war. The resolution called for the disarming of all militias -- an allusion to Hezbollah as well as to Palestinian militant groups -- and the prevention of illegal arms sales and smuggling operations in Lebanon. In a telephone conversation with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Tuesday, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Israel 'will not be able to accept the ongoing and growing undercutting of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which is not being implemented, and the continued smuggling of all types of weapons into Lebanon, upsetting the delicate balance along Israel's border.' |
| Posted by:Fred |