The US is reportedly pressing the Lebanese government and military to take steps to dismantle a Hezbollah outpost established on the Israel-Lebanon border, Israeli and US officials told Axios news website on Friday.
The officials, who were not named by Axios, told the news website that Hezbollah established the outpost several weeks ago in Israeli territory.
According to a senior Israeli official, Hezbollah operatives set up a tent on April 8 in an area that is north of the border fence between Israel and Lebanon, but 30 meters south of the internationally recognized Blue Line in an area considered by the UN to be Israeli territory.
Not until weeks later, was the Israeli military aware of the tent in Israeli territory when the party added a second tent, a water tank and a generator to the outpost, he noted.
Officials in the US State Department and the Department of Defense (the Pentagon) had assured the UNIFIL forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the Lebanese government and army, of the need to evacuate the Hezbollah site, US and Israeli officials pointed out.
“Our goal is to move the outpost out of there. We prefer Hezbollah will do it themselves than to bomb it," Axios quoted a senior Israeli official as saying.
