The Lebanese military commander, General Hisham Jaber, was interviewed on Lebanese television and said: "Hezbollah should destroy the Israeli gas rigs," the American "MEMRI" Institute for Middle East Communication Research reported yesterday (Sunday).
Jaber served in the Lebanese army for many years; in his most recent position, he served as the military commander of Beirut. After his retirement from the army, he emerged as a highly sought-after analyst on military and political issues in Lebanon and the wider Middle East region.
Notably, he is a former commander in the Lebanese army - which, as part of an outline for a cease-fire agreement on Israel's northern border, is supposed to help prevent Hezbollah's terrorist activity on the border.
Notwithstanding this, Jaber said, "Hezbollah still has ballistic missiles. What is it waiting for? They (the missiles) will be destroyed while they are on the ground, or the war will end and it will be too late. If I were in Hezbollah's place, I would launch Yakhont missiles tomorrow and destroy one of the Israeli gas fields. [I believe that] this will not ignite a widespread war because there will be no harm to civilians (in Israel) and no loss of life."
A Yakhont missile is a Russian anti-ship cruise missile. According to the CSIS Missile Defense Project, it "has a range of 300 km in its default trajectory and a range of 120 km in a low-altitude trajectory. After being accelerated by a rocket booster, it propels itself with a kerosene-powered ramjet motor. In typical flight, the missile can reach altitudes of up to 14 km and speeds of up to 750m/s (Mach 2.2). When approaching the target, the missile descends to a 10 – 15 m altitude to avoid detection."
Last week, Israel proposed an outline for a cease-fire on the Israel-Lebanon border, which includes a demand for the Israeli airforce to use Lebanon's airspace, as well as a demand that the IDF be given the opportunity to operate in southern Lebanon to make sure that Hezbollah does not rebuild its military infrastructure, according to Channel 14's military commentator Noam Amir.
According to an Arab report, an American official revealed that the US is working to deploy approximately 8,000 soldiers of the Lebanese army in the south of the country, near the border with Israel. Also, Lebanon's interim prime minister, Najib Mikati, said that Lebanon agrees to send its army south to the Litani River area, in accordance with its commitments under UN Resolution 1701. These commitments include the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south of the country and the increased presence of UNIFIL forces along the border.
The Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabia Berri, emphasized that there is an "extraordinary agreement" on the part of the entire government, including Hezbollah officials, to implement UN Resolution 1701.
Channel 14 contributed to this article.
