A tri-partite meeting was held between Lebanese Armed Forces officials, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) officers and Israeli military representatives at the border crossing of Ras al-Naqquoura on Monday. "They discussed the implementation of Resolution 1701 and violations of the Blue Line with a view to preventing incidents. They also discussed the marking of the Blue Line and the issue of the village of Ghajar," said UNIFIL spokesperson Yasmina Bouziane.
Israel still has troops stationed in the northern half of the village of Ghajar, which straddles the border. Under Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 conflict, Israel should have withdrawn its troops immediately after the fighting. But the UN says the Israeli military frequently operates in the Lebanese part of the village. Recent reports have suggested that Israel could withdraw its forces from the north of the village by November 21.
In a separate development, Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert on Monday arrived in Russia, where he has said he would ask President Dmitry Medvedev not to sell arms to Israel”s enemies. Iran has announced that it plans to buy anti-aircraft weapons from Russia while Syria has reportedly also expressed interest in purchasing the weapons.
Meanwhile, the ongoing war of words between Israel and Hizbullah intensified over the weekend when Israeli military officials warned that any future conflict with the party would see "damage and destruction" inflicted on Lebanon on a scale far exceeding that sustained during the summer war of 2006.
Senior Israeli military officers said that if another war were to break out, Lebanon”s army and civilian infrastructure would again be classed as potential targets, prompting condemnation from Hizbullah and Lebanese public figures.
In an interview published in an Israeli newspaper Friday, the general in charge of Israel”s northern border region said the country”s military planned to use the "Dahiyeh doctrine," a war-plan that would see the template of heavy bombardment that targeted Beirut”s southern suburbs during the summer 2006 war expanded to cover vast swathes of Lebanese territory.
General Gadi Eisenkot said Israel was planning to "use disproportionate force" against villages from which Israel is fired on. "This isn”t a suggestion," he said. "This is a plan that has already been authorized."
His comments have been backed in recent days by other senior Israeli military figures. In an article due to be published this week, Major General Giora Eiland, a senior reserve commander, has recommended making the Lebanese state rather than Hizbullah the target of an Israeli military campaign.
Eiland condones attacking the Lebanese Army and the country”s civilian infrastructure and says the Lebanese government should be warned as soon as possible that the whole country will be in the line of fire during the next conflict. "People won”t be going to the beach in Beirut while Haifa residents are in shelters," he writes.
The rhetoric from Israeli military leaders has prompted a scornful response from Hizbullah, which has dismissed the threats as part of a "media war." Nawwaf Moussawi, Hizbullah”s head of international relations, told The Daily Star that Israel”s plans to expand heavy bombing would not work.
"It”s important to remind the Israelis that Dahiyeh”s total destruction didn”t do them any good in 2006, and they should learn from that lesson," he said. "This proves without a doubt that Israel is the enemy. If Hizbullah had issued these threats, the international community would have condemned them."