Washington, April 15: The United States voiced alarm Wednesday about the possible sale of Scud missiles to Hezbollah.
The White House and State Department said they were increasingly concerned about reports of the sales a day after Israel raised the alarm.
“If such an action has been taken, and we continue to analyze this issue, it would represent a failure by the parties in the region to honor UN Security Council Resolution 1701,” State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said.
“And clearly it potentially puts Lebanon at significant risk.”
Israeli President Shimon Peres Tuesday accused Syria of supplying the Scuds but a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unclear if the transfers had yet taken place.
There was also disquiet in the White House, as President Barack Obama tries to engage Syria and unblock the impasse in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
“We are obviously increasingly concerned about the sophisticated weaponry that is allegedly being transferred,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
“We have expressed our concerns to those governments and believe that steps should be taken to reduce any risk and any danger,” Gibbs said, apparently referring to the Israeli and Syrian governments.
“This is a … potentially destabilizing effect … the alarming effect that this has. We have expressed our great concern about.”
Another US official earlier said that there was concern the missile sale was “under consideration, but it’s unclear whether or not the missiles have been transferred.”
Peres told public radio Tuesday: “Syria claims it wants peace while at the same time it delivers Scuds to Hezbollah whose only goal is to threaten the state of Israel.”
Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai declined to go into details of the alleged Scud shipments, but said “Hezbollah’s firing capacity has significantly improved.”
Hezbollah is part of a Lebanese coalition government formed in November.
Israel waged a bloody 34-day war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 after Hezbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid that aimed to free Lebanese soldiers from Israeli prisons. The bodies of the soldiers were returned in a prisoner swap.
The war claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.
Hezbollah, originally a resistance group formed to counter an Israeli occupation of south Lebanon, had forced the Israeli military out of Lebanon in 2000. Israel, however, continues to occupy the Lebanese Shabaa Farms.
Israeli flights over Lebanon occur on an almost daily basis and are in breach of UN Security Council resolution 1710, which in August 2006 ended the war.
—Agencies