Aoun: Tunnel operation is no risk to peace,
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Tuesday he saw no risk to peace from Israel’s military operation against tunnels it says were dug into Israeli territory by Hezbollah.
Israel says Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful armed group, dug the tunnels under the border with the aim of launching attacks into Israeli territory with backing from its regional sponsor Iran. Hezbollah has yet to comment.
“We certainly took this issue seriously – the presence of tunnels at the border – and Israel informed us via the United States that it does not have aggressive intentions and it will continue to work on its [territory],” Aoun said.
“We also do not have aggressive intentions, and so there is no danger to peace in this [Israeli] operation... We are ready to remove the causes of the dispute, but after we obtain a final report and we set out the matters that need to be dealt with,” he told a news conference alongside his visiting Austrian counterpart.
The head of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, said a UNIFIL technical team had verified the existence of a second tunnel. The peacekeepers last week confirmed the presence of one tunnel near the Israeli town of Metulla.
Maj.-Gen. Stefano Del Col, in a statement issued after meetings with Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, said the matter was “serious.”
UNIFIL was making “every effort to maintain clear and credible channels of communication with both sides so that there is no room for misunderstanding on this sensitive matter.”