Netanyahu says IDF found ‘state-of-the-art’ Russian arms in Hezbollah bases

PARIS, France — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells a French newspaper that Israeli forces had found “state-of-the-art” Russian weapons in searches of Hezbollah bases in south Lebanon.

Netanyahu highlights to Le Figaro newspaper, in an interview released today, that under a 2006 UN Security Council resolution only the Lebanese army was allowed to have weapons south of the country’s key Litani River.

“However, in this area, Hezbollah has dug hundreds of tunnels and caches, where we have just found a quantity of state-of-the-art Russian weapons,” the French article quotes Netanyahu as saying.

“A new civil war in Lebanon would be a tragedy. It is certainly not our aim to provoke one. Israel does not intend to interfere in Lebanon’s internal affairs,” Netanyahu tells Le Figaro.

“Our only aim is to allow our citizens living along the Lebanon frontier to go home and feel safe,” he adds.