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Former Mossad Chief Calls for International Sanctions to Defeat Hizbullah
(Jerusalem Post) Yonah Jeremy Bob - Tamir Pardo, who headed Israel's Mossad intelligence service from 2011 to 2016, has proposed defeating Hizbullah with sanctions led by an alliance of the U.S., EU and moderate Sunni-Arab states. He told the Jerusalem Post in an interview: "The ability to limit the Hizbullah threat with sanctions is 10 times easier than with Iran - and if Trump would do it now, it would have a big effect on the Iran nuclear standoff." "Lebanon is the only state in the world with a terror entity which has more raw power than the country's army. Hizbullah is Lebanon. It sits in the government and the parliament. It decides all political issues." At the same time, "Hizbullah is an inextricable part and operative of a third state - Iran." During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, there was a concept of attacking Hizbullah without attacking the rest of Lebanon, Pardo explained, but this concept is now outdated. "To defeat Hizbullah completely, we would need to invade all the way until northern Lebanon because of their long-range missiles. I argue that we can solve the Lebanese issue with a different and more fitting solution." "If Trump announces sanctions against Lebanon like he did against Iran, the Lebanese economy would not be able to last for more than three to four months. Lebanon is not Iran. It is a tiny nation which relies on the West and the Sunni moderate countries." "Even if only some aspects of the serious Trump sanctions on Iran were imposed on Lebanon," he said, this would be much more effective than a war against Hizbullah - if there was "a clear message that sanctions would only be removed if: 1) Hizbullah gave up its arms or was absorbed entirely into the Lebanese army, and 2) Iran has to withdraw its tentacles completely from Lebanon."