Israel: Flights over Lebanon to continue

JERUSALEM - Israel said Sunday that air force flights over Lebanon would continue because arms smuggling to Hezbollah guerrillas has not stopped more than two months after a cease-fire ended the conflict between the two sides.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz, in remarks at Israel's weekly Cabinet meeting, accused the Lebanese government of failing to carry out its cease-fire obligations to keep weapons from being delivered to the Islamic militant group from their Syrian and Iranian backers.

"The accumulating intelligence in our hands points to a rising effort to transfer arms," and so "the legitimacy for overflights increases," Peretz said.

Peretz spoke after the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon termed the overflights a clear violation of the cease-fire resolution, which calls for both sides to respect the U.N. boundary drawn in 2000 after Israel ended its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.

French Maj. Gen. Alain Pelligrini, who leads the U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, said last week that the overflights are a major concern. A day later, France's Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie called the overflights "extremely dangerous" because the peacekeepers on the ground could see them as hostile acts and fire in self-defense.

As many as 15,000 Lebanese army troops and an equal number of U.N. troops have been assigned to keep the peace in southern Lebanon as part of the cease-fire agreement.

Israel says it has no choice but to conduct flights across that line because of ongoing arms supplies to Hezbollah and the group's continued armed presence in southern Lebanon, which, under the resolution, is to become a weapons-free zone.

A Lebanese government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said Lebanon would continue to press for an end to the Israeli overflights. Peretz's statements, the official said, "confirmed that Israel has been violating and would continue to violate Lebanese airspace."

Peretz, in response, said Sunday that the U.N. force was "designed to operate against Hezbollah, not Israel."

"As long as the resolution isn't implemented, there is no other choice" but to keep flying over Lebanon, he said.

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Associated Press Writer Nick Wadhams contributed to this report from the United Nations.

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