US Congress Urges UN to Crack Down on Lebanon’s Hizbullah

Over 200 members of the US Congress have signed a bipartisan letter to the United Nations secretary-general calling for Hizbullah to be reined in due to the threat it poses to Israel. The missive urges Antonio Guterres to “lead an international effort to limit Hizbullah’s [military] capabilities and to avoid the devastating… outcome of [war] which you have previously warned.” The Iran-backed terror group, the letter continues, “has positioned its massive arsenal [of missiles] in civilian areas, turning much of Lebanon’s population into human shields. Hizbullah will bear the responsibility for that, as will the [Lebanese government] and the international community.” Notably, the communique referenced UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which effectively ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah, and established a peacekeeping force to ensure that southern Lebanon remained demilitarized. Although it also called for Hizbullah’s total disarmament, Iran’s underling has since amassed some 130,000 rockets and missiles and effectively gained political control in Beirut. Last year, the Israel Defense Forces launched a mission to destroy numerous cross-border tunnels built by Hizbullah in order to kidnap soldiers and civilians or potentially conquer Israeli towns and villages during a future confrontation. More recently, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu charged that Hizbullah was building underground military facilities across Lebanon with a view to producing precision-guidance systems for otherwise rudimentary projectiles. With respect to Syria, the IDF has over the past two years conducted hundreds of strikes against Hizbullah’s infrastructure there and has repeatedly targeted convoys of advanced Iranian weapons destined for the terror group in Lebanon.