BICOM

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told delegates at the INSS conference in Tel Aviv yesterday that Israel faces a joint Lebanese-Syrian threat on its northern border if war breaks out.

“We speak about the northern front, not the Lebanese front,” Lieberman said. “I am not sure that the Syrian government can resist Hezbollah’s attempts to drag them into a war with Israel.”

Lieberman also echoed his previous warnings that the “Lebanon’s army and Hezbollah are the same – they will all pay the full price in the event of an escalation. If a conflict does break out in the north… we won’t allow scenes like in 2006, where we saw citizens of Beirut on the beach while Israelis in Tel Aviv sat in shelters”.

Hezbollah is believed to have an arsenal of between 100,000 and 150,000 short-to-medium and long-range missiles. Speaking with reporters after his meeting earlier this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran’s precision missile factories in Lebanon were already in progress and that he had stressed to his Russian counterpart that it was a threat Israel was not willing to accept.

Lieberman’s comment came as the US pledged continued support for Lebanon’s military, calling it a potential counterweight to Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Acting US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Satterfield, told the INSS conference that the US “will sustain our efforts to support legitimate state security institutions in Lebanon, such as the Lebanese Armed Forces, which is the only legitimate force in Lebanon”.

Lieberman also said that the Iran nuclear deal “leads the entire Middle East into a nuclear arms race,” as it has allowed Iran to develop its nuclear programme while under protection from the international community. He suggested that while European countries seem unlikely to budge in their support for the deal, they may be moving closer to tackling the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile programme.

Referencing US support for Israel and the recent Palestinian fallout of Trump’s Jerusalem recognition, Lieberman said he saw no prospect of imminent progress on renewing peace talks. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “is not looking for an agreement; he is only looking to buy time and stall the peace process,” Lieberman claimed. “All we can do is work on managing the conflict with the Palestinians. The only solution, for now, is to reach a more limited agreement. A permanent peace deal is too ambitious right now.”