Israel submits detailed map of Hezbollah's positions in Lebanon to UNSC

In the context, Erdan's letter affirmed that Hezbollah has not been disarmed. Rather, it is using human shields to protect its weapons arsenal now,which includes more than 130,000 missiles and military infrastructure."

He also explained that "the organization systematically and completely limits the ability of UNIFIL to perform its tasks, by restricting freedom of movement, in an attempt to conceal the activities of its members."

Erdan attached to his letter, a map prepared by the Israeli army identifying the areas in which the Hezbollah tunnels were recently discovered, the sites from which attacks against occupied Palestine and the observation points of the "Green Without Borders" Organization were launched.

His letter also concluded that "the Security Council must immediately declare "Hezbollah" a terrorist organization and prevent it from receiving any direct or indirect assistance."

Erdan's claim came after a quarterly report recently presented by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, in which he focused on the implementation of United Nations Resolution 1701, which was decided on during the Israeli war on Lebanon in July 2006, and was supposed to pave the way for a solution to the conflict. Its basic conditions are to disarm the militias, so that there will be no weapons outside the framework of legitimacy and the Lebanese state.

However, the UN report indicated that there were serious violations of this decision by Hezbollah which has pushed military reinforcements into southern Lebanon - a claim that Israeli army officials had previously repeated on several occasions.

Guterres also urged the Lebanese government to allow the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) full access to all required areas in southern Lebanon, including the tunnels established by "Hezbollah" and discovered by the Israeli army two years ago.

It is noteworthy that Lebanon and Israel held a new round of talks brokered by the United States over their disputed maritime borders, but sources participating in the meeting of Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz with David Schenker, advisor to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, confirmed that there are currently large gaps between the Israeli and Lebanese parties, in the maritime border demarcation talks between them, the sources indicated that if the two sides adopt a pragmatic approach, only can the dispute between them be resolved.

Steinitz met with Schenker on Tuesday evening to discuss the latest developments in maritime border demarcation, on the eve of the arrival of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Israel.

The fourth round of talks is expected to be held next month at the UNIFIL base in Naqoura, south Lebanon.

(A)

ANHA