Lebanon's president said Tuesday that Israel's operation to destroy a series of cross-border terror tunnels built by Hezbollah will not endanger the calm along the frontier, adding that his country takes the issue seriously.
Michel Aoun spoke hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the border, where a third tunnel was discovered on Tuesday.
"If Hezbollah makes the big mistake and decides in any way to harm us or to resist the operation we are conducting, it will be hit in a way it cannot even imagine," Netanyahu warned.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon confirmed the IDF's findings. UNIFIL chief Maj. Stefano Del Col met with Aoun on Tuesday.
"This is a serious matter and UNIFIL is working in close coordination with the parties both at the technical level as well as at the leadership level to ensure that all related facts are objectively determined and diligently addressed in line with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701," Del Col said in a statement, referring to the resolution that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
De Col said the inspection of tunnels was a "work in progress" and vowed that UNIFIL will "make every effort to maintain clear and credible channels of communication with both sides so that there is no room for misunderstanding on this sensitive matter."
Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, said that Lebanon is prepared to address the issue after assessing a full report on the situation.
"We take this issue – the presence of tunnels at the border – seriously and Israel informed us via the United States that it does not have aggressive intentions and it will continue to work on its [territory]," Aoun said, adding that his country harbored none either.
"We are ready to remove the causes of the disagreements after we get the full report and decide what are the issues we need to handle," Aoun said.
