"Following the surprising resignation of Lebanon's prime minister, Israel is planning a diplomatic offensive to step up pressure on Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah at the United Nations, a senior Israeli government minister said Thursday.
Intelligence Minister Israel Katz told The Associated Press that he believes conditions are ripe to take a stand against Iranian actions in the region, including its support for the Lebanese Shiite militant group.
In particular, he said that Israel wants the world, after years of inaction, to tightly enforce a 2006 cease-fire agreement that called on Hezbollah to disarm and stay away from Israel's border...
Hezbollah and Israel battled Israel to a stalemate in a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a U.N.-brokered cease-fire.
The agreement, U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, called for the disarmament of militant groups in Lebanon and an end to arms transfers to them. The only armed forces allowed in southern Lebanon were the Lebanese national army and U.N. peacekeepers.
The cease-fire, however, has been poorly enforced, and Israel believes Hezbollah has amassed an arsenal of some 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel, much of it stockpiled near the border..."