Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 Lebanon war with the Shiite militant group Hezbollah was a failure.
"As we mark two years since the end of the Second Lebanon War, we should say clearly: Resolution 1701 did not work, is not working and, as it appears, will not work in the future and is a failure," Barak said in parliament.
The resolution, which brought an end to the devastating 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in August 2006, demanded the pullout of the Israeli army from south Lebanon and its replacement by a U.N.-backed Lebanese army deployment.
It also called for the disarming of all militias in Lebanon – an allusion to Palestinian militant groups as well as Hezbollah – and a halt to arms smuggling.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of smuggling in weapons from neighboring Syria. It charges the militant group now has three times the number of rockets deployed in south Lebanon that it had at the end of the war.