Israel Matzav: UN to demand $1 billion from Israel for Lebanon?

Sunday, September 07, 2008

UN to demand $1 billion from Israel for Lebanon?

YNet is reporting that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is to file a report this month that will call on Israel to pay Lebanon $1 billion in compensation for an oil spill that Israel allegedly caused during the 2006 war.

According to the report, Ban plans to submit a report to the United Nations General Assembly at the end of the month, stating that damage Israel caused to the oil reservoir polluted Lebanon's coast, and that the pollution spread to neighboring countries, especially Syria.

Ban further notes that the UN rehabilitation plan managed to clean some of the oil spill in several areas in northern Lebanon seashores.

The oil spill, which was defined the greatest natural disaster in Lebanon's history, took place after Israel Air Force planes hit a power plant and caused some 110,000 oil barrels to leak into the Mediterranean Sea.

The report said that the UN wants Israel to compensate the countries harmed by the oil spill and restore the environmental situation along the Lebanon coast. The Jewish state has yet to respond to the demand, despite messages conveyed in August 2007.

Given that Lebanon is now controlled by Hezbullah, the idea of Israel paying compensation to them for anything is beyond absurd. I'm waiting to hear whether Moon is also going to try to earmark some of that compensation to Hezbullah's Syrian patrons. Or maybe we should just compensate them in weapons since that's what they'll spend the money for anyway.

Maybe the next time they should think twice before they do something that's likely to start a war. There's not likely to be much left of Beirut if this happens again.

By the way, YNet is attributing this report to 'Lebanese media.' The only Lebanese source on which I found this report was Hezbullah's al-Manar television station. Hmmm.