Tension is rising between Tel-Aviv on one side, Rome and Paris on the other about Lebanon. On October 16th, 2006, Italian Minister of Defense, Arturo Parisi, would have authorized the sale of Anti-missile batteries sea-to-air Aster 15 to Lebanon.
This Information is confirmed by the former president of the Republic, Francesco Cossiga, then contradicted by his son, the deputy (Forza Italia) Giuseppe Cossiga in the middle of the vote of the Italian contingen’s budget in the UNIFIL.
Until now, Israel had been awoken to prevent the Lebanese army from being equipped with an Anti-Air defence worthy of the name. It is thanks to this particular situation that Ehud Olmert had been able to order the July offensive. The Anti-missiles Aster 15 would be the most powerful in the world: they would be able to pursue and destroy a moving target going up to 250 meters a second. They are manufactured by the two French companies Aerospatiale and Thomson-CSF, and provided with an Italian guidance system Alenia/Finmeccanica. Experts object that if Aster 15 have just passed successfully the confidence tests, they do not reach the production stage. In addition, Lebanese officials confirm having struck up contacts in France, Italy and Germany to obtain new weapons.
French General Alain Pellegrini, current commander-in-chief of the FINUL, declared on October 19th that "if the diplomatic means are not sufficient enough" to put an end to the Israeli overflights of Lebanon, "other means could be perhaps used". On October 20th, Michele Alliot-Marie, French Minister of Defense, indicated in Washington that the Israeli overflights were "extremely dangerous" as they could be regarded as hostile manœuvres. That is to say that they could cause anti-aircraft shootings as a self-defence manner by the Lebanese army as well as by the FINUL forces. She asked also her united-stator counterpart Donald Rumsfeld to put pressure on his Israeli friends so that these overflights cease immediately. For more than 20 years, Tsahal has been violating the Lebanese airspace daily.
