UN: "Unlikely that Lebanese Hezbollah militants have more weapons now in southern Lebanon.."

Reuters, here

"It is highly unlikely that Lebanese Hezbollah militants have more weapons now in southern Lebanon than they did at the time of their 2006 war with Israel, the head of U.N. peacekeeping said Wednesday.

Israel says Hezbollah continues to increase its weapons stockpiles south of the Litani River where the 13,000-strong UNIFIL peacekeeping mission is charged with keeping out armed fighters and illicit weapons.

"I think it would be very difficult for Hezbollah to put additional weapons in the area," Alain Le Roy, the French head of the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping, told reporters. "I don't speak of north of the Litani River, because there UNIFIL has no mandate," he said. "But south of the Litani River, we consider it very unlikely."...

Privately, several peacekeeping officials have acknowledged that UNIFIL's limited mandate probably prevented it from uncovering more weapons caches. However, they also said they believed the Israelis were exaggerating the extent to which Hezbollah was stockpiling arms south of the Litani River..."