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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also accused Hezbollah of storing weapons near Beirut airport, at the risk of an explosion like the port in August. Hezbollah’s leader denied the accusation.
By Rick Gladstone
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted tuesday that more Arab and Muslim countries would identify diplomatically with their country “soon, very soon,” following the agreements signed this month with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly, Netanyahu also accused the Lebanese Shiite militant organization Hezbollah of manufacturing and storing missiles near Beirut Airport, which he said probably reflects the devastating explosion at Beirut port in August that killed many others and destroyed part of the Lebanese capital.
There is no indication that the port disaster, through a deserted arsenal of ammonium nitrate, has affected weapons.
The Israeli leader gave his speech through a pre-recorded video because the General Assembly took a stand almost this year, however, it has used the theatrical gadgets it has used in previous speeches to the world body. Drawing attention to an annotated map of Beirut, he highlighted what he described as the dangers of weapons posed by Hezbollah and its main sponsor, Iran, not only for Israel, but also for the Lebanese.
“I tell the Lebanese that Israel needs no harm, ” Mr. Netanyahu. “But Iran does. Iran and Hezbollah have intentionally put you and your families in danger. “
Netanyahu’s map was intended to show the coordinates of what he called Hezbollah’s “missile explosives depot” in a congested community near the airport, located between civilian homes and a fuel station.
Israel has long argued that Hezbollah has accumulated deposits of rockets and other weapons in Lebanon and that, with Iran’s help, it is trying to produce precision-guided missiles. Last August, an Israeli drone struck a construction near Beirut, Israeli officials said. it contained machines to make the missiles.
In a televised clash tuesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah accused Mr. Netanyahu of lying about the comforts of the missile garage in Lebanon “to incite other Lebanese people who oppose Hezbollah. “
In an attempt to refute Netanyahu, Hezbollah temporarily organized a media tour in one of the spaces believed to be the group’s missile house. Local television stations broadcast an excerpt of what gave the impression of being a commercial hangar, where young people sang. Also in Iran, state television broadcast similar images, describing the site as a metal garage and construction fabrics and denouncing what it called Mr. Netanyahu.
The Israelis invaded Lebanon several times, most recently in 2006, when the Israeli army and Hezbollah waged a devastating war month by month. While either side has tried to avoid some other conflict, the Israelis see Hezbollah’s arsenal as one of the biggest threats. israel’s security.
Amos Yadlin, a retired israeli army intelligence leader who heads the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said most of Hezbollah’s arsenal comes with 140,000 rockets, thousands of missiles and a few hundred precision guided missiles, armed drones and Iranian air. defense systems.
In his speech, Netanyahu spoke mildly about the coronavirus pandemic, which severely affected Israel and generated strong complaints about how he treated it. Instead, Netanyahu focused on what he described as positive developments in the Middle East, a “region precisely known for generating smart news. “
He praised President Trump for breaking with what the Israeli leader described as the “failed methods of the past” in finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Netanyahu connected Trump’s involvement with decisions by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to identify diplomatic relations with Israel, the first Arab countries to do so in more than 25 years.
These decisions outraged Palestinian leaders, who saw them as a betrayal of Arab solidarity through pressure on Israelis over the lack of meaningful negotiations for a Palestinian state on Israeli-occupied lands.
“These new agreements will bring to our people the blessings of peace and the enormous benefits that come with more trade, more investment, more trade, more transportation, tourism, more cooperation in many other areas,” said Mr. Netanyahu.
“I have no doubt either,” he said, “that more Arab and Muslim countries will join the circle of peace soon, very soon. “
Such a development, Netanyahu said, would make “peace between Israelis and Palestinians likely. “
In his own address to the General Assembly last week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that “the only way out” of the confrontation in his past demands for a two-state solution, but with an obvious popularity that the flat had replaced in israel’s favor, Abbas also asked UN Secretary-General Guterres to convene a foreign convention on the confrontation in early 2021.
There has been a hypothesis that Sudan can simply identify diplomatic relations with Israel. President Trump has said that Saudi Arabia, which has great influence over the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and would have approved its decisions, could simply follow suit. King Salman made no mention of such a measure in his own address to the General Assembly last week.
The reports went through Ben Hubbard, Adam Rasgon and Farnaz Fassihi.
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