MGLE01: HIZBALLAH TOLD UN IT DID NOT FIRE FIRST

C O N F I D E N T I A L BEIRUT 001921

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

NSC FOR ABRAMS/DORAN/WERNER/SINGH

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/13/2016
TAGS: IS KPKO LE MOPS PTER
SUBJECT: MGLE01: HIZBALLAH TOLD UN IT DID NOT FIRE FIRST
ON MAY 28...BUT WOULD NOT PREVENT PALESTINIANS FROM DOING SO

REF: BEIRUT 1690

Classified By: Ambassador Jeffrey D. Feltman. Reason: Section 1.4 (d)
.

HIZBALLAH ALL BUT ADMITS
TURNING A BLIND EYE
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1. (C) On June 13, Georges Nasr, political officer in the
office of UNSYG Personal Representative to Lebanon Geir
Pederson, briefed econoff on a recent meeting between the UN
office and Hizballah representatives in early June. Nasr
said the Hizballah officials denied that Hizballah fired the
first shot that resulted in a day of fighting with Israel on
May 28 (reftel). The Hizballah officials denied that
Hizballah officials had fired the Katyusha rockets early in
the morning or the sniper shot in the early afternoon that
wounded an Israeli solider and led to robust Israeli
airstrikes on Hizballah fixed positions. The Hizballah
officials also denied foreknowledge of the attacks, claiming
they did not know who was responsible, according to Nasr.


2. (C) However, Hizballah officials did suggest their
complicity. They told Nasr and his colleagues that Hizballah
would not have prevented Palestinian militants from
retaliating for Israeli aggressions (in this case, alleged
Israeli involvement in the assassination of Abu Hamzeh on May
26). Nor, the Hizballah officials continued, would they
prevent attacks on Israel by Palestinian militants. Nasr got
the impression that although the Hizballah officials seemed
convincing in their denials of responsibility, they did not
seem embarrassed by their suggestion that other militant
groups appeared able to operate freely from areas under
Hizballah influence.

COMMENT
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3. (C) The Hizballah officials' admission of willingness to
turn a blind eye to Palestinian attacks on Israel from
southern Lebanon is troubling for two reasons. First, it
demonstrates that Hizballah is willing to let violence flare
along the Blue Line as long as Hizballah thinks it can
plausibly deny responsibility for specific acts. Second, it
shows a blatant disregard for UNSCR 1559 and UN attempts to
work with all parties to at least keep the Blue Line
situation contained. The introduction of Palestinian
militants adds the danger of more provocative attacks and
attacks on civilian targets that Hizballah would normally
shun. One cannot help but think of the dangerous precendent
of the Cairo Agreement, when the GOL s ecretly agreed to
allow the PLO to fire upon northern Israel from Lebanon, to
disastrous results for Lebanon. All this said, the events of
May 28 remain murky about who committed which acts, and what
the supportive or collaborative roles of Hizballah might have
been. End comment.
FELTMAN