U.S. fears Syria, Iran purposely violating Lebanon arms embargo to destabilize the country

John Bolton never disappoints. Whenever an enemy of Israel needs to be made an enemy of the US, up pops Bolton to fire the initial shot across the bow.

He is one of the many members of the Bush administration who see no essential difference between Israeli interests and those of the US and his work at castigating Israel's perceived enemies on the world stage has been so unrelenting that he has been celebrated by the Zionist Organization of America with its annual Defender of Israel Award.

Indeed, Israeli organisations fall over themselves to praise his work:

JINSA executive director Tom Neumann said: "John Bolton is a strong advocate of America and a strong supporter of Israel. With the consistent effort to undermine American and Israeli security in the UN, I feel confident that a proven diplomat like John Bolton will be representing our interests in the UN."

When the Zionist Organization of America awarded him they went even further in their praise:

"The ZOA praises and strongly supports the heroic efforts of Ambassador Bolton to bring about fair treatment of Israel and decent conduct within the United Nations." Referring to his recent work as UN ambassador on behalf of Israel, Klein noted that Bolton's "efforts to have Hezbollah condemned at last for its vicious terrorist assaults on Israel, without the usual 'balancing' criticism of Israel for legitimately striking back at Hezbollah, is a major achievement and speaks volumes for his commitment to justice, the war on Islamic terrorism, and fair dealing for Israel and the world."

And well they might fall over themselves, as there appears to be no limit on what he will do on their behalf:

U.S. News reported that in his position as the government's top arms control official Bolton shelved a memo suggesting that Israel had violated U.S. laws against using U.S. arms for "nondefensive" purposes when it used U.S.-supplied weapons to assassinate Salah Shehada, a top Hamas activist in Gaza City, on July 23, 2000. Israel's air force used a U.S.-made F-16 bomber to drop a one-ton bomb on a house in the densely populated part of Gaza where the Hamas leader was staying. Fourteen civilians died along with Shehada, and more than 100 Palestinians were injured. Senate staffers investigating Bolton found that Bolton prevented a State Department memo accusing Israel of violating U.S. arms-export laws from reaching the desk of then-Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Well now he's popped up again, bang on cue, to accuse Syria of violating the UN weapons embargo in Lebanon:

Bolton stressed on Monday that Syria's obligations to respect a UN arms embargo authorized by the August Security Council resolution that ended the 34-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah "are particularly important as it is the one country other than Israel that borders Lebanon."

In a speech to the UN Security Council, Bolton welcomed the Lebanese government's extension of its authority throughout the south of the country for the first time in almost 40 years, as well as its army's deployment along the eastern part of the UN-drawn boundary with Israel and the border with Syria.

"Despite this advance, we continue to be concerned that Syria and Iran are actively trying to destabilize the democratically elected government of Lebanon ...," he said. "We call on Syria and Iran to abide by their obligations to respect Lebanon's sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and political independence."

Terje Roed-Larsen, the top UN envoy for Syria-Lebanon issues, has reacted with alarm at Bolton's remarks:

Representatives of the Lebanese government "have stated publicly and also in conversations with us that there has been arms coming across the border into Lebanon."

"The consistent position of the government of Syria has been that, "yes, there might be arms smuggling over the border, but this is arms smuggling and that the border is porous and very difficult to control," he said.

Roed-Larsen called the situation in Lebanon "worrisome."

"The political rhetoric shows that there are very high tensions, and I think we have to look at the situation in Lebanon with all caution. And there are reasons for being worried about where this is heading," he said.

There are, indeed, reasons to be worried where all this is headed. Bolton is one of the people who - along with President Bush - hoped that the war against Hizbullah could be widened to include Iran and Syria.

And one of the things I have learned from watching the neo-cons is that defeat on an issue is never the end of the matter for these people. They simply regroup and prepare for a second charge.

As Bolton peppers the air with accusations against Syria and Iran, we should never forget what his ultimate aim is; this is a man who wants a wider Middle Eastern war.

His shocking disregard for the plight of Lebanese victims of the Israeli attacks on that country were highlighted when he said "that Israelis killed by terrorists were more important than the Lebanese civilians killed by Israel."

Bolton said that there is no "moral equivalence" between Lebanese civilians killed by Israel and Israeli civilians killed by Muslim terrorists: "It's simply not the same thing to say that it's the same act to deliberately target innocent civilians, to desire their deaths, to fire rockets and use explosive devices or kidnapping versus the sad and highly unfortunate consequences of self-defense."

So, there is no real secret about where Bolton is going with all of this. There is also no need, when someone has been so consistently one-sided, for anyone to let him get away with it.

He's looking for ways to facilitate invasion, and it is through that prism that one should weigh all his utterances.

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tag: United, States, Israel, John Bolton, Syria, Iran, Resolution 1559,