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U.S.: Embargo on Weapons to Hizballah a Top Priority

[State Department] Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs C. David Welch told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday: "The recent conflict in Lebanon was instigated by Hizballah's unprovoked July 12 attack across the Blue Line into Israel - an attack in which several Israeli soldiers were killed and two captured. This attack was not an isolated incident, but rather reflected a long-standing policy of Hizballah to engage in periodic attacks against Israel - even after Israel's withdrawal (which was confirmed by the United Nations) from Lebanon in 2000." "Since its inception in the early 1980s, Hizballah has belied its claims to be a movement resisting occupation by engaging in terrorism, including its involvement in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut which killed 63 people, the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that same year which killed 241 U.S. servicemen, the 1984 bombing of the U.S. Embassy annex which killed 2 U.S. servicemen, and the 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires which killed 29, as well as the 1994 attack on the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires which killed 85. As this record shows, Hizballah is a major destabilizing factor in the Middle East, closely allied with Syria and Iran." "For the first time in almost 40 years, the Lebanese Armed Forces have deployed to the south. Capable new UNIFIL forces, much more heavily armed and numerous and with an expanded and robust mandate, are accompanying them, and force commitments are nearing their desired levels. Also for the first time, UNIFIL has a maritime role." "UN Security Council Resolution 1701 imposes a legally binding obligation on all states to ensure that weapons are not supplied to Lebanon without the authorization of the Lebanese government or UNIFIL. We have called on all UN member states to act aggressively in enforcing this embargo, ensuring that their territory and airspace are not used to undercut it." "The embargo imposes a particular requirement on Syria and Iran, both of whom have a long history of interfering in Lebanon and of supplying Hizballah and other regional terrorist groups with weapons and funding. They have continually failed to heed international calls to stop resupplying these groups with deadly arms."
2006-09-14 01:00:00
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