Lebanese Minister: Smuggling Accusations an Excuse for No Ghajar Pullout

A Lebanese cabinet minister hinted on Friday that Israeli claims of explosives smuggling through the Lebanese-Israeli border were aimed at covering up the failure of the Jewish state to withdraw from the Lebanese side of the border village of Ghajar.

The minister, who was not identified, did not rule out that the charges against at least eight Arab-Israeli men of transferring explosives to Israel, were an excuse to cover up Israeli troops’ continued occupation of the northern part of Ghajar.

In his remarks to An Nahar newspaper, the official wondered why the Jewish state did not file a complaint with the U.N. Security Council when it arrested the alleged members of the network that assisted in the infiltration of the 20 kilograms of explosives under Hizbullah’s orders.

Israel could have claimed that the operation was in violation of Security Council resolution 1701 as it has done on several occasions, the minister said.

Israeli media said Wednesday that the Nazareth District Court charged eight residents of Nazareth and the Israeli part of Ghajar involved in the case.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said however 14 Israeli Arabs were arrested over the past few weeks in connection with the alleged smuggling operation.

The arrests followed a months-long undercover operation, he said.

The Shin Bet internal security service said most of the suspects are drug dealers and presumed the packages they were asked to transfer were drugs.