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Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday cautioned that Hizbullah had greatly improved its capabilities since the Second Lebanon War and was in possession of rockets that could reach as far south as Dimona. The defense minister also warned Beirut that the Shi'ite militia's integration into the Lebanese government could lead to extensive attacks on Lebanese infrastructure in the event of a military conflagration."Hizbullah has three times the ability it had before the Second Lebanon War and now has 42,000 missiles in its possession, as opposed to the 14,000 it had before the war," Barak said in a Knesset speech, warning that Hizbullah's recent maneuvers south of the Litani River were a liability for Lebanon. "In practice, UN Resolution 1701 isn't working, and Hizbullah's integration within the Lebanese republic exposes Lebanon and its infrastructures to a more massive hit in the event of a future standoff."Barak went on to threaten Iran, which he said "continues to thumb its nose at the world and act vigorously to promote its military nuclear program. Israel is not taking any option off the table and I recommend that neither do others. Beyond that, any explicit statement would be harmful."Earlier, addressing the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the defense minister said that he did not regret the truce with Hamas, and assessed that the situation in the South would stabilize once more."I'm not sorry for any day or month of quiet," he said. "In each of the two months leading up to the truce there were 500 incidences of Kassam rocket fire and mortar shell fire, a figure which dropped to roughly ten a month when the truce kicked in."Barak mentioned the resurgence of rocket attacks since an IDF operation targeted a tunnel on the Gaza border several weeks ago, but predicted that the truce would eventually reestablish itself.As in the days of Noah...
