‘U.S. Official Shows Lebanon Gov’t Photos, Maps of Hezbollah Weapons Sites’
BEIRUT (Dispatches) – A senior U.S. diplomat has shown Lebanese government officials photographs and maps of sites used by the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement to store precision missiles, according to a report Sunday.
The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, owned by a Saudi prince, said that David Satterfield, U.S. acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, told the Beirut officials that "the U.S. government could neither overlook the findings nor hold the Zionist regime back from acting to deal with them, and that it was up to the Lebanese government to resolve the situation.”
The report also said that the passing on of that information explained the uptick in threats by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in comments he made late Friday night.
Appearing on a large screen to a crowd of supporters in the southern Beirut Dahiye district, Nasrallah acknowledged that his group had precision weapons but said it did not yet produce them.
"So far in Lebanon there are no factories for precision missiles,” he said.
But he warned that if the U.S. continued to focus on the organization’s precision missiles, he would establish factories to produce them.
In April, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly conveyed to Lebanon a message from the Zionist regime warning Beirut of action by Hezbollah to covertly construct a new missile production facility in the country.
Pompeo visited Beirut after the occupied territories, using the trip to highlight his concerns about Hezbollah, which is targeted by U.S. sanctions, despite holding three cabinet posts in Lebanon.
In a September 2018 speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu displayed a map pinpointing the location of the Hezbollah missile sites near Beirut’s airport.
Netanyahu later said that Hezbollah closed the facilities he had revealed to the United Nations.
The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, owned by a Saudi prince, said that David Satterfield, U.S. acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, told the Beirut officials that "the U.S. government could neither overlook the findings nor hold the Zionist regime back from acting to deal with them, and that it was up to the Lebanese government to resolve the situation.”
The report also said that the passing on of that information explained the uptick in threats by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in comments he made late Friday night.
Appearing on a large screen to a crowd of supporters in the southern Beirut Dahiye district, Nasrallah acknowledged that his group had precision weapons but said it did not yet produce them.
"So far in Lebanon there are no factories for precision missiles,” he said.
But he warned that if the U.S. continued to focus on the organization’s precision missiles, he would establish factories to produce them.
In April, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly conveyed to Lebanon a message from the Zionist regime warning Beirut of action by Hezbollah to covertly construct a new missile production facility in the country.
Pompeo visited Beirut after the occupied territories, using the trip to highlight his concerns about Hezbollah, which is targeted by U.S. sanctions, despite holding three cabinet posts in Lebanon.
In a September 2018 speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu displayed a map pinpointing the location of the Hezbollah missile sites near Beirut’s airport.
Netanyahu later said that Hezbollah closed the facilities he had revealed to the United Nations.