WASHINGTON (JTA) – A bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House Foreign Affairs Committee is demanding that the United Nations enforce all Security Council resolutions so that terrorist groups cannot keep rearming.
Twenty-eight Congress members, led by U.S. Reps. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), sent a letter Tuesday to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon charging him with failing to enforce resolutions, including one that requires the “disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias.”
The letter was written following last month’s attack in which Hezbollah terrorists fired anti-tank missiles into Israel, resulting in the deaths of two Israeli soldiers and one U.N. peacekeeper.
“The violence in the area caused by Hezbollah is horrific, and it results from the failure of the United Nations to enforce Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701,” the lawmakers wrote. “It is incumbent upon the U.N. and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) to ensure that Hezbollah, a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel and its allies, does not continue to rearm and initiate violence against Israel.”
The letter writers cited Israeli military officials who have reported that Hezbollah “could have, astoundingly, as many as 100,000 missiles and rockets in its arsenal by next year.”
The lawmakers also demanded to be informed of how compliance of the resolutions will be achieved and what steps will be taken to respond to the violence and rearming of Hezbollah.
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