By NNN-KUNA
Beirut : Lebanese Army Commander General Michel Suleiman has ordered troops stationed in southern Lebanon to be on full alert till end of nearly a week of Israeli military drills due to commence on Sunday close to the border region.
Military sources said on Saturday that the commander ordered the Lebanese regular forces deployed in the south to resist any possible Israeli breach of the UN-drawn “blue line,” marking the border with neighbouring Israel, during the drills.
General Suleiman has also asked the international peacekeeping force serving in South Lebanon, UNIFIL, to tighten its precautions in the region and try to resist any bid by the Israeli forces to violate the national territories.
“As-Safir” daily newspaper quoted in its edition published on Saturday “well-informed diplomatic sources in New York” as saying that the Israeli Army asked the UNIFIL to notify the Lebanese government that the unprecedented wide-scale military-civil exercises would not develop into an actual military confrontation with the Lebanese regular forces or Hezbollah.
According to the Israeli press, the wide-scale, week-long defense drill will begin on Sunday, starting at the weekly cabinet meeting with a briefing by the commander of the exercise, Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai. The operative part of the drill was set to commence on Monday. It will include, among other scenarios, a simulated missile attack on civilian areas – some with chemical warheads.
Meanwhile, a leading cleric of Hezbollah, Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, said in a statement that the organization was not deeply concerned about the drill and expressed his belief that it was mainly designed to enhance the morale among the Israeli personnel that was seriously affected during the war on Lebanon in July 2006.
Following the war, Hezbollah withdrew much of its infrastructure from the border region to locations farther to the north while the international peacekeepers took over security missions in the frontier area.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Al-Siniora, on Friday, called on the UNIFIL and the Lebanese Army to be vigilant and ready to abort any possible actual offensive by the Israelis.