(Jerusalem Post) David Rudge - The terror threat posed by Hizballah against Israel is unlikely to disappear in the short- or long-term future even if Syria withdraws completely from Lebanon, according to Col. (res.) Eitan Azani, now a senior research fellow in the Institute for Counterterrorism at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center. "The chances are that Syria's intelligence and security apparatus will remain behind, at least for the time being, so there won't be any changes as far as Hizballah is concerned. Even if the security apparatus is also withdrawn it would not be too difficult to smuggle the arms into Lebanon and down to the south of the country," Azani said. Nevertheless, Nasrallah realizes that if the Syrians did leave Lebanon completely and a free and independent government were formed in Beirut, increased pressure would be put on Hizballah to disarm its military wing, he said.
2005-03-08 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive