Israel to partners: condition aid to Lebanon on dealing with Hezbollah

Lebanon is a theater where the Iranians are exerting great effort to deploy precision guided missiles.

By HERB KEINON
Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim men from the Iranian-backed group Kataib Hezbollah wave the party's flags as they walk along a street painted in the colours of the Israeli flag during a parade marking the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Baghdad (photo credit: THAIER AL-SUDANI/REUTERS)
Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim men from the Iranian-backed group Kataib Hezbollah wave the party's flags as they walk along a street painted in the colours of the Israeli flag during a parade marking the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Baghdad
(photo credit: THAIER AL-SUDANI/REUTERS)
As Lebanon’s internal crisis intensifies, Israel is urging foreign powers considering giving the country financial assistance to condition it on Lebanon dealing with the threat of Hezbollah developing precision-guided missiles, and on distancing Hezbollah from positions of power.
When Israeli strategic planners are looking at the developments in Lebanon stemming from the deep economic crisis there, they are doing so not only with an eye on how the events will directly impact on Israel, but also on how Iran might possibly exploit the situation to its advantage.
Outside of Israel’s concern about Iran’s nuclear capabilities, it is also very concerned about its conventional capabilities, especially – as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear in recent days – its precision-guided missile capabilities.
Lebanon is a theater where the Iranians are exerting great effort to deploy precision-guided missiles in two ways. The first is by transferring to Hezbollah the know-how and technology to turn the 150,000 missiles and rockets in its arsenal into precision-guided munitions.
The second way is by providing them with the capacity to build these rockets in Lebanon itself. From Israel’s position, to give badly needed aid to Lebanon without dealing with the issue of the precision-guided missiles – and stripping Hezbollah of this weapon – would be extremely problematic.
Israel has stayed quiet as the protests have rocked Lebanon for some two weeks, and intends to continue to do so and stay out of the crisis as long as Hezbollah does not do something to drag it in. Jerusalem believes that at this point, Hezbollah is interested in stabilizing the situation, and that it suffered a public relations blow inside Lebanon when Hezbollah and Amal members attacked protesters in Beirut on Tuesday.