Israel awaiting US nod to hit Lebanon

Lebanon’s Druze leader Walid Jumblatt says Israel is looking for pretexts to launch a new offensive on Lebanon while awaiting the green light from Washington.

“Israel can’t survive without expansion and war,” Naharnet quoted Jumblatt as telling the Saudi al-Watan newspaper in an interview published on Sunday.

Recalling Israel’s heavy losses in its offensive against southern Lebanon in the summer of 2006, the Progressive Socialist Party’s leader said Israel would not accept the results of the war “and consequently it will look for any Lebanese or regional pretext to ignite a new war.”

On the imminence of an Israeli conflict, Jumblatt said the timing of such an offensive was directly dependent on the state of Israeli ties with the West and the United States in particular.

“I don’t think Israel would be capable of launching war without the consent of the US,” he said.

The Druze leader called on the Lebanese unity government to strengthen the Lebanese army to face Israeli threats.

He said that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who is on his first visit to Washington, had plans to ask the White House to pressure Israel to put an end to its violations of Lebanese airspace and return the Shebaa farms area and Ghajar village to Lebanon.