TEL AVIV – With Iran’s aid, Lebanese-based terror group Hezbollah has built a new missile manufacturing facility in Beirut, Israeli intelligence sources said, according to a report by Israel’s Channel 13 aired Monday.
The intelligence was shared with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who passed it on to Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri during his state visit to Lebanon last month.
The facility is likely to be manufacturing precision-guided missiles, an anonymous U.S. source told the TV channel.
“We have made it clear to the Lebanese government that Hezbollah is doing something inside Lebanon and that the danger of an escalation with Israel as a result is real,” the source said, adding that “we made sure that all the information we have in this context is also in the hands of the Lebanese government.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his September address to the UN General Assembly accused Hezbollah of hiding massive missile stockpiles under civilian and public buildings, including Beirut’s international airport and a Hezbollah-owned football stadium.
According to Netanyahu, Hezbollah was attempting to convert ground-to-ground missiles to precision ones in Beirut’s Ouzai neighborhood close to the airport.