Minister of Defense Amir Perez said this morning that the Lebanese government was now paying the price of the blinkered attitude of its governments for years in allowing Hizbullah to do as it pleased in southern Lebanon.
During a special meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv today, Perez sent an unequivocal message to Lebanon. He said Israel would not allow Hizbullah to return to southern Lebanon and deploy along the international border, where the Lebanese Army should operate.
“The Lebanese government is the only entity that should deploy forces along this line, and if it avoids fulfilling its duty as a sovereign government, we will not allow Hizbullah forces to sit any longer on Israel’s borders,” said Perez. “Israel will no longer accept a terrorist organization that threatens its citizens while under the protection of a sovereign state by deploying along the international border.”
Perez emphasized that Israel considered the Lebanese government directly responsible for the launching of terrorist attacks from its sovereign territory for years, and for the fate of the IDF soldiers abducted yesterday. “Hizbullah hes been given a free run for years, thanks to Lebanese hesitation and direction from Syria and Iran,” he said.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 13, 2006
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