Israel launched large-scale military exercises on Tuesday on the occupied Golan Heights along the Syrian border on Tuesday in the presence of senior political and military officials. "There is a reinforcement on the other side, and it's not by chance that we are training intensively on the Golan Heights and on a major scale," Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who observed the drills, told army radio.
He was referring to the Lebanese Shia Muslim militia Hezbollah, which Israel says has been rearming with help from Syria and Iran since the 2006 Lebanon war, widely regarded in Israel as a failure.
Barak said UN resolution which ended the 34-day war "failed to fulfil its goals." "There has been a very significant reinforcement of Hezbollah in recent years, and we are examining the possibility that the balance of power has shifted with the introduction of sophisticated weapons from Syria," Barak said. The August 2006 resolution demanded the pullout of the Israeli army from south Lebanon and its replacement by a UN-backed Lebanese army deployment and called for the disarmament of Hezbollah and other armed groups.
But in the two years since, Israel has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of rearming with rockets and other sophisticated weapons smuggled into Lebanon from Syria. Israel has itself continued regular overflights of Lebanon, which are in violation of the agreement. Barak also warned the government against slashing defence spending in a proposed budget aimed at reducing overall expenditure by some 2.6 billion dollars, saying "Israel cannot afford the luxury of undermining its security."
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