Roed Larsen relays Cabinet”s position to Security Council
Hizbullah”s paramilitary infrastructure represents a "threat to regional peace," UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed Larsen warned on Thursday. Roed Larsen told the Security Council that Hizbullah "maintains a massive paramilitary infrastructure separate from the state." He added that this had "an adverse effect" on the Lebanese government”s monopoly on the use of force and "constitutes a threat to regional peace and security."
Briefing the 15-member council on anti-government protests over the past two days, Roed Larsen said "these developments give rise to growing fears among the Lebanese that Hizbullah is building parallel institutional structures distinct from, and in competition with, those of the state."
"It is believed that this contributes to the erosion of the state”s institutions and and of its monopoly on the use of force," he added.
Roed Larsen said the Western-backed government had told the UN that Hizbullah had its own, separate, secure communication network which "connects to a Syrian network beyond the border."
According to Lebanese authorities, the network covers the whole area south of the Litany River, and the entire Mediterranean coastline up to the border with Syria. It also crosses Mount Lebanon from south to north, covers a series of Palestinian camps south of Beirut and in the Bekaa valley, Roed Larsen quoted them as saying.
The Lebanese government regards the network as "illegal" and an "attack on the sovereignty of the state" while Hizbullah maintains it is part of its arsenal should not be harmed, he added.
Hizbullah says it needs its arsenal to deter Israeli attacks.
The UN envoy also repeated the government”s accusation that Hizbullah had set up surveillance cameras near Beirut airport, which led the Cabinet to launch a probe Tuesday and to reassign the head of airport security over his alleged links to the opposition.
Roed Larsen also said the UN continued to be "deeply concerned" by the activities of two Damascus-based Palestinian militias – the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and Fatah Al-Intifada – which maintain significant paramilitary infrastructures outside refugee camps in Lebanon and along Lebanon”s border with Syria.
"The government of Syria bears a responsibility in urging these groups tp abide by Security Council resolutions and the decisions of the government of Lebanon," he added.
The envoy also said that UN chief Ban Ki-moon "reiterated once again his firm conviction that the disarmament of Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias must take place through a political process that will lead to the full affirmation of the authority of the government of Lebanon throughout all of its territory."
On Thursday, at least eight people were reported wounded in fresh clashes pitting mainly Sunni Muslim government supporters against Shiite opposition protesters.
Also Thursday, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned that the crackdown on his group was tantamount to a "declaration of war."
Nasrallah also said his powerful Shiite group was ready to use its weapons to defend itself, in a speech on the second day of protests which saw clashes escalate between supporters of rival factions.