Israel does not rule out military escalation with Hezbollah, says official

A senior Israeli military official said today that he does not rule out a military escalation with Lebanon’s Hezbollah in the absence of an agreement between Tel Aviv and Beirut on the maritime borders. Aharon Haliva made his comment at the 13th annual International Conference of the International Institutite for Counter-Terrorism, organised by Israel’s Reichman University.

“We have established the possibility of an escalation in the northern arena, as a result of the failure to reach an agreement on the maritime borders,” said Haliva, the head of Military Intelligence in the occupation state. “I remind [Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan] Nasrallah of the extent of Israel’s military power, and I am sure that he does not want to try it.”

The intelligence official told conference participants that Hezbollah has effectively kidnapped the state of Lebanon.

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“I am convinced that Lebanon would have joined the Abraham Accords had it not been for Hezbollah,” he said, referring to the normalisation agreements signed between Israel and a number of Arab countries. “I do not need to pass messages to the Lebanese people. The Lebanese people want electricity, but it is cut off. The Lebanese people are witnessing the collapse of the Lebanese currency. Lebanon, like other countries funded by Iran, such as Iraq, Yemen and Syria, is at the bottom of the list of countries in all international indicators.”

Haliva’s comments came after the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted an unnamed Israeli official today as saying that, “There is cautious optimism in Israel regarding the maritime border demarcation negotiations with Lebanon.”

Lebanon and Israel are disputing an area of 860 square kilometres in the Mediterranean that is rich in oil and gas. The US is mediating in indirect negotiations between them to settle the dispute and demarcate the border.

In October 2020, indirect negotiations were launched between Beirut and Tel Aviv under the auspices of the UN to look at the borders. Five rounds of talks were held, the last of which was in May 2021. They stopped due to fundamental differences between the neighbouring states.

At the beginning of June, Israel sent ships operated by the Greek-British company Energean, which specialises in extracting gas, to the Karish gas field. The Lebanese government objected to this because of the ongoing dispute. The company announced last Thursday that it was suspending work in the area adjacent to the Lebanese border for several weeks, without offering any explanation.