Lebanese Judge
Ahmad Mezher has given orders that a survey be conducted of Lebanese occupied territories in the Shebaa Farms, Kfarshouba, Huneen, Ideise and Bleeda.
These villages are bordering Hasbaiya, Rashaya al-Fukhar and Kiyam and have been under Israeli occupation since 1981, as Syria's Golan Heights have been since 1967. This step coincides with the illegal "gift" of the Syrian Golan Heights offered by US President Donald Trump to his closest ally Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. Although Trump's move was verbally condemned by the international community, no other state or international body seems likely to openly oppose Trump's move at the moment.
However,
Lebanon has decided to confront this move on the ground, showing its readiness to defend its territory if US "gifts" were ever seen to include Lebanese occupied territories. The Lebanese presidency, the Parliament and the government agreed that it is the right of Lebanon to regain its occupied territory and that the equation "the army, the people, the resistance" is united under one umbrella.
Thus, the possibility of confrontation between the Resistance - i.e. Hezbollah in this case - and Israel is now on the table.
The level of tension and chances of confrontation increased during Lebanese President Michel Aoun's visit to Moscow. During meetings with his homologue Russian President Vladimir Putin,
the Christian President Aoun rejected US pressure on his country. The US establishment, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his envoys to Lebanon, wants to prevent the over one and a half million Syrian refugees in Lebanon from returning home. President Aoun also rejected Trump's gift to Netanyahu, stating clearly that the Golan Heights is Syrian territory illegally occupied by Israel, and not the property of the US to dispose of as it will.
Comment: Russia has now announced its tit-for-tat response: Moscow shuts British Council and expels 23 diplomats in response to British hysteria