Theoria

ANDERSON COOPER: And joining us right now in New York is the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman. Ambassador Gillerman, what do you know about the current operations going on? What can you say?

DAN GILLERMAN, ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Well, what is going on at the most is a number of Israeli ground troops very near to the border on the Lebanese side, trying to destroy some Hezbollah outposts. This is an operation which is very measured, very local. This is no way an invasion of Lebanon, this is no way the beginning of any kind of occupation of Lebanon. We have no desire to enter Lebanon. We left it six years ago without any desire to go back. And what we’re trying is part of trying to make Hezbollah incapable of continuing to shell our cities and our villages and to kill our citizens.

COOPER: The objective here is what? The objective is to push back Hezbollah as much as possible from these territories? Are you able to actually, in your opinion, disarm Hezbollah through military means alone?

GILLERMAN: We believe we have the capability of making Hezbollah incapable of continuing its terrorist activities. We do believe that, ultimately, there will need to be some kind of a political solution, especially as it is the international community that for the last two years has demanded of the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah and deploy its forces in southern Lebanon.

You have to understand, all these pictures we are seeing, all these pictures your correspondents are showing us of devastation in Beirut and in Tyre and other places are a direct result of the Hezbollah turning Lebanon into a terror base. If the Hezbollah wasn’t there, Lebanon today would be the prosperous, thriving, fun loving entrepreneurial society that it was 30 years ago. Lebanon is held hostage by the Hezbollah. And what we are trying to do is not only prevent Hezbollah from shelling our cities and killing our citizens, but eventually making Lebanon into a peaceful place which would pose no threat to us or to the region.

COOPER: Ambassador Dan Gillerman, we appreciate you staying with us and joining us. Thank you very much for that.

GILLERMAN: Thank you very much.