United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley didn’t wait for next week’s debate on the future of UNIFIL — the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon — to take its commander to task for a statement many observers find incredulous. Irish Maj. Gen. Michael Beary had told the Associated Press that there is “no evidence” to support American and Israeli claims that Iranian-backed, Lebanon-based Hizbullah has built formidable arsenals of sophisticated weapons and has stockpiled “massive” amounts of arms in south Lebanon, both clear violations of Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Lebanon war. Haley dismissed Beary’s objections and his “embarrassing lack of understanding” suggesting that the commander of the peacekeeping force “seems to be the only one in southern Lebanon who doesn’t know what Hizbullah is doing.” Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said on Saturday that he is trying to prevent the establishment in Lebanon of Iranian factories to produce missiles for Hizbullah. Hariri’s comments were welcomed by Israel, which has been lobbying the international community while some tried to credit Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s recent admonition that Israel will not “watch from the sidelines” while Syria is inundated with Iranian military under the control of its Revolutionary Guard and armed via Lebanon. Missile production by Iran would be divided between a factory along the Mediterranean coast between the cities of Tyre and Sidon and another in the Beqqa Valley. Senior Israeli sources have recently acknowledged what is universally believed but until now unconfirmed: the Jewish state has launched scores of attacks on weapons caravans carrying arms from Syria to Lebanon.