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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| 'We were completely at Hezbollah's mercy,' former UN peacekeeper says |
| 2024-10-22 |
| [Jpost] A former United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) soldier, under the alias Michael, testified that UNIFIL was "totally subject to Hezbollah" when he worked in Lebanon 10 years ago in an interview with Danish news site B.T. on Sunday. UNSTO, founded in 1948, is the first peacekeeping mission the United Nations ever created; with the mission of "monitor[ing] ceasefires, supervise[ing] armistice agreements, prevent[ing] isolated incidents from escalating and assist[ing] other UN peacekeeping operations in the region to fulfil their respective mandates. The soldier had been tasked with observing and reporting violations of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 of 2006, which called for southern Lebanon to be without Hezbollah. Despite the organization’s mission, Michael reported, "We were totally subject to Hezbollah. We clearly had limited freedom of movement. For example, we never operated after dark for fear of Hezbollah. So they had free time in the evening and night hours." Michael also reported that UNIFIL and UNTSO workers had their access to cities in southern Lebanon restricted by Hezbollah, who would stop them when they tried to enter certain areas. "They simply blocked the road. They were not visibly armed but aggressive, and it was quite clear that they were members of Hezbollah - we knew very well who decided things, especially in the Shiite cities," said Michael. "They didn't want us to see what they were doing." Despite their obligations, Michael testified that workers would simply observe from a distance when suspicious persons photographed the Israeli border. "When we patrolled the Blue Line, we often saw 'civilians' very close to the Israeli military installations taking pictures," he said. "When that happened, we withdrew and observed from a distance — we were simply instructed to do so." When I served as reservist on the Lebanese border, we were told that UNIFIL acts as Hezbollah observers, reporting our movements to the terrorists. ...Michael’s interview came in tandem with an Israel Hayom report that Hezbollah terrorists captured by the IDF testified that Hezbollah paid money to UNIFIL personnel to use their bases for operations - a claim UNIFIL denied to the Jerusalem Post. |
| Posted by:Grom the Reflective |