(CNSNews.com) – Amid warnings by Israel and threats from Hezbollah, tensions are building along the Lebanon-Israel border, as the long-delayed issue of the disarming of the Shi’ite militia comes returns to the political front burner.
 
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates Monday that Israel was concerned about recent developments in southern Lebanon, where a large explosion two weeks ago revealed the presence of what Israel says was a Hezbollah weapons cache.
 
The blast took place in a village nine miles north of the Israeli border – and about three miles south of the Litani River. The existence of a cache south of the Litani would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution that brought an end to a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.
 
When members of the U.N.’s Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) went to investigate, more than 100 residents – reported by the Lebanese army to be Hezbollah supporters – attacked them, hurling rocks and preventing them from accessing the blast scene. Fourteen UNIFIL troops were lightly injured and several vehicles were damaged.
 
Israel has long maintained that Hezbollah has been flouting Security Council resolution 1701 by rearming in an area which the measure stipulates must be “free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons” apart from those belonging to the Lebanese army and UNIFIL.
 
After Israel complained about the incident, the head of UNIFIL -- a 31-year-old body many Israelis have long viewed as biased -- briefed the U.N. Security Council behind closed doors.
 
Beirut’s Al Akhbar newspaper reported that UNIFIL’s Alain Le Roy had told the council that “evidence seems to indicate that Hezbollah was the owner of the illegitimate batch of weapons that exploded.”
 
If the reported comments are accurate, it would be the first time UNIFIL has explicitly accused Hezbollah of violating the 2006 resolution.
 
U.S. deputy ambassador to the U.N. Alejandro Wolff told reporters after the briefing that the U.S. believed the cache belonged to Hezbollah. He said the covert stockpiling of weapons in the area was a “clear violation of resolution 1701,” adding that “all the indications are that these were arms actively maintained by Hezbollah.”
 
The Lebanese government, which for years has sidestepped the issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament, told the U.N. the explosion occurred at a cache of Israeli weaponry left behind after the 2006 war, and collected by Hezbollah.
 
In another recent incident in the sensitive area, a group of Lebanese protestors breached the border and hoisted Lebanese and Hezbollah flags at an unmanned Israeli observation post.
 
Israel officials have warned the Lebanese government that it would be held responsible if any hostile action is launched from Lebanese soil.
 
At the weekend, Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah predicted that Israel would attack its positions sometime before next spring, and said the group would respond by firing missiles at Tel Aviv, Lebanese media reported.
 
During the 2006 war, Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into Israel, reaching as far south as Hadera, around 50 miles south of the border. Last year, Israeli defense officials said that with Iranian help, Hezbollah now had rockets capable of hitting the main population centers along Israel’s Mediterranean coast.
 
‘Establish benchmarks to disarm Hezbollah’
 
The Lebanon situation featured during an open debate on the Middle East at the Security Council on Monday.
 
U.S. envoy Wolff said the explosion south of the Litani River, indicating that a large number of arms had been stored there, demonstrated the urgent need to bring weapons under the government’s control.
 
Wolff noted that Hezbollah had admitted that it was continuing to rearm. He said the international community must take action on the issue of its weapons.
 
Israeli ambassador Gabriela Shalev said Hezbollah was a threat to Lebanon, Israel and the wider region – and also pointing fingers at “its two sponsors,” U.N. member states Iran and Syria.
 
She urged the council to establish clear benchmarks to disarm and dismantle Hezbollah.
 
Lebanese envoy Caroline Ziade accused Israel of violating Lebanese sovereignty on a daily basis.
 
On the explosion in the south of the country, Ziade said a joint investigation by the Lebanese army and UNIFIL was still under way, but that preliminary indicated that the weapons were remnants from the 2006 war.
 
“While we are still waiting for the conclusions of this investigation, we refuse any anticipation of the outcome … as well as any accusations launched by Israel of arms smuggling into UNIFIL’s area of operation,” she said.
 
The 2006 war was triggered by a cross-border raid by Hezbollah fighters who killed eight Israeli soldiers and kidnapped two others. The 34-day war cost the lives of 1,200 Lebanese, according to that country’s government, and 159 Israelis, according to the Israeli government.
 
The remains of the two kidnapped Israelis were returned a year ago, in a controversial exchange for five Lebanese prisoners – including notorious terrorist Samir Kuntar – and the bodies of some 200 other Lebanese and Palestinians. Kuntar received a hero’s welcome, with members of Lebanon’s Western-backed government lining up to greet him.
 
U.N. resolution 1559 of 2004 calls for “the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias,” while resolution 1701 of 2006 requires “the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that … there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state.”
 
The State Department has designated Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization since 1997. Before 9/11, U.S. officials say it was responsible for the deaths of more Americans in terrorist attacks than any other terror group.