Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday that air force flights over Lebanon would continue because arms smuggling from Syria has not stopped.
Peretz, in comments at Israel's weekly Cabinet meeting, accused the Lebanese government of failing to carry out its obligations under a U.N. cease-fire to keep weapons from reaching Hizbbllah. "The accumulating intelligence in our hands points to a rising effort to transfer arms," and so "the legitimacy for overflights increases," Peretz said, according to the AP.
"As long as the resolution isn't implemented, there is no other choice," he said.
France's defense minister said Friday Israeli overflights of Lebanese air space are "extremely dangerous" because French-led U.N. peacekeepers on the ground could see them as hostile acts and fire in self-defense. Michele Alliot-Marie told a news conference in New York after meeting with U.N. Kofi Annan that the violations of Lebanese air space could give others an excuse not to obey a cease-fire imposed by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.
