Report: US asked Israel not to respond to drone launch
Western diplomat in Beirut says US asked for Israeli restraint since no damage was caused and to help fight against Syrian President Assad's regime
A Western diplomat in Beirut told the Lebanese newspaper a-Nahar on Saturday that the US asked Israel to show restraint and not respond immediately to the drone which was shot down over the Haifa bay on Thursday.
According to the source, the main reason for the request is that the drone, shot down over the Haifa bay, caused no damage.
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In addition, the diplomat said, senior officials in the US government said that before Israel responds, those responsible for the drone and its target must be found.
Search for the drone fragments (Photo: Ido Erez)
The report also said that the US does not want international attention diverted from the accusations the US leveled against Syrian President Bashar Assad regarding the use of chemical weapons against opposition forces.
According to the diplomat, "The Israeli military command doesn't treat drones launched from Lebanon lightly, since their goal may be not only taking pictures, but also an assassination of senior officials, military or political."
Concurrently, Israeli officials are increasingly of the opinion that Hezbollah was not necessarily the party responsible, but the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
The Iranian force operates on Lebanese soil both for Assad's regime and for Hezbollah, and is responsible for developing the drone array in the terror group's arsenal.
Hezbollah denied any involvement in the drone launch, and the IDF Spokesperson's Unit has yet made no connection between the incident and the Shiite group.
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