BEIRUT (Dispatches) – A senior Hezbollah official says the resistance movement will not allow the Zionist regime to infiltrate Lebanon’s security sectors, after Beirut busted at least 17 Zionist spy networks.
Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem made the remarks during a ceremony in Bourj el-Barajneh neighborhood of southern Beirut on Friday evening.
Sheikh Qassem said Hezbollah resistance fighters will not hesitate to make sacrifices in order to prevent the Zionist enemy’s infringement on Lebanon’s sovereignty.
“The Hezbollah resistance movement is defending Lebanon and its future and enjoys widespread support,” he said.
On Monday, Lebanon’s al-Akhbar newspaper reported that the country’s security forces uncovered at least 17 Zionist spy networks.
According to the report, each of the rings operated independently across Lebanon and in neighboring Syria. The paper called the discovery “one of Lebanon’s biggest security operations” since 2009.
The operation reportedly began four weeks ago, when the Lebanese Internal Security Forces Directorate began tracking the spying networks, which were reportedly tasked with collecting information on Hezbollah and various Palestinian factions in the country.
In another development, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday announced the appointment of Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lazaro Saenz of Spain as head of mission and force commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), said his press office.
Lazaro Saenz succeeds Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Col of Italy, who will shortly complete his assignment.
UNIFIL was first established in 1978 to confirm the Zionist regime’s withdrawal from Lebanon. After the 2006 war between Hezbollah and the occupying regime, UNIFIL’s mandate was expanded to monitor the cessation of hostilities and to accompany the deployment of Lebanese armed forces throughout southern Lebanon as the occupying regime withdraws its troops.