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BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon's foreign minister said on Monday that Israel was trying to "justify another aggression" by falsely alleging the existence of missile sites near Beirut airport belonging to the country's capital. Hezbollah backed by Iran.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, speaking at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow, Russia, August 20, 2018. REUTERS / Maxim Shemetov
Speaking last week at the United Nations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu identified three sites close to the airport. He said the Hezbollah Shiite group was converting "inaccurate projectiles" into precisely guided missiles.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, speaking to foreign ambassadors before taking them to the country, said there were "many statements … claiming that Hezbollah had specific missiles".
But he added: "This does not mean that these missiles are present near the Beirut airport".
Bassil accompanied the diplomats, who included Russian and Iranian emissaries, and journalists during a visit to three sites close to the airport, including the grounds of a Lebanese first division football team, Al-Ahed, which Israel has identified as one of the sites.
In response, Netanyahu said later on Monday that Hezbollah had lied to the international community. The diplomats were taken to the football field but not to the underground site adjacent to it, where the missile factory was located, he said.
"Ambassadors should be wondering why they waited three days before going around. Hezbollah regularly watches over the sites that have been exposed, "Netanyahu said in a statement.
Bassil, a political ally of Hezbollah, said Israel aimed to "falsify the facts about Lebanon and to shout lies that carry the seeds of a threat that does not scare us".
Netanyahu had used the program of the UN General Assembly "to justify a new aggression against a sovereign country like Lebanon".
Hezbollah, founded by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in 1982, fought a major conflict with Israel for the last time in 2006. This group has since been strengthened, notably because of its role in the Syrian war in fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said last month that the group had obtained precision rockets despite Israeli strikes in Syria.
The Israeli army has released a video clip and photos of its Hezbollah rocket construction sites in Beirut.
Reportage by the Beirut office; Additional report by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem Editing by Richard Balmforth
