They are scared of Hezbollah

Hanin Ghaddar
NOW Lebanon
03 July '10

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 was passed to ensure that Lebanon enjoys full sovereignty and control over all its territories. However, the incidents that occurred in South Lebanon earlier in the week have proved that certain parties are set on undermining the resolution’s aims.

One day before UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued his 13th report on UNSCR 1701, residents in 22 villages in the South took to the streets, blocked roads and attacked UNIFIL troops with stones to protest the increased presence of the UN peacekeepers in the South.

The countries contributing to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon are concerned that their freedom of movement has been compromised. According to Michael Williams, the UN’s special coordinator for Lebanon, “UNIFIL’s exercise in the area was carried out as part of its normal operations and with full respect of its mandate.”

UNSCR 1701 calls on Hezbollah to disarm and authorizes UNIFIL to “take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind, to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council…”

But as the Lebanese army failed to issue a statement on the incident to clarify the situation, Hezbollah declared its dissatisfaction with UNIFIL. In an interview with As-Safir newspaper on Friday, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem said that “UNIFIL must pay attention to what it does and realize that any excess only serves to cause worry and harm trust between the force and residents,” adding that if the government cannot protect border village residents, then they will have to find a way to protect themselves.

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