Lebanon will have to pay a price for Iranian activities, warns Israel defence minister

Tel Aviv : ‘Israel will try till the end to avoid the third Lebanon war. But, if the Iranian activities in Lebanon increase, then Lebanon will have to pay dearly for it’ warned the Israeli Foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman. During his Russian visit two days ago, Israeli Prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had cautioned the Russian president Vladimir Putin about the Iranian activities in Lebanon. Netanyahu had also asserted that the Iranian and Hezbollah bases in Lebanon will be attacked.

There is an increasing anger about the rise in Iranian activities in Lebanon among the Israel leaders. There have been strong demands, in the Israel parliament, to act against the Iran presence in Lebanon by the ruling as well as the opposition groups. The Israeli parliamentarians also demanded that there is a need to teach a lesson to Lebanon for allowing Iranian military activities in Lebanon. After this, the Israeli Defence minister lashed out at Lebanon.

Israel had warned Lebanon, long time ago, to stop the increasing Iranian activities. But, as the appeal was ignored by Lebanon, Israel was forced to take steps to stop the Iranian activities, said Defence minister Lieberman. The Israeli Defence minister has warned that if Iran tries to establish a military base in any other country in the region, like Syria, Israel will act against it.

Israel resorted to air strikes to stop the Iranian activities in Syria. The Israeli Defence minister gave indications of a strong military action with his words ‘But, in Lebanon Israel will not stop only at the air strikes.’ Because of the mistakes by Hezbollah, Lebanon will have to face a war. If the Israel population comes under a threat because of the Iranian military movements in Lebanon, even the Lebanese population will not be safe, said Liberman further.

Israel is alleging that Iran is building a missile factory in Lebanon. Prime minister Netanyahu had raised this issue even during his Russia visit. Israel is claiming that Iran is building a missile factory in the southern border region of Lebanon with help from Hezbollah. Hezbollah terrorists had released photographs of this factory in the media. These photographs are a proof of Iran’s military activities inside Lebanon, claims Israel.

Lebanon has dismissed the Israeli allegations. If Israel attacks Lebanon, the Lebanese army will give them a fitting reply, warned Lebanon government a few weeks back. There are reports of the Lebanese army increasing the level of preparedness on the Israel border. Whereas, Hezbollah, supporters of Iran, who dominate Lebanon have warned of dire consequences in the case of the Israel army attacking Lebanon.