Israel flagged Hezbollah threat before launching air attacks, leaked memo shows

US embassy cable said Israeli officials did not trust Lebanon or Syria to contain the group’s fighters

• Middle East crisis – live updates

An internal US assessment indicates that Israeli officials had doubts that the Lebanese state could disarm Hezbollah even before Israel launched an aerial campaign against the group on Monday.

The leaked embassy cable shows that on the eve of the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran, Israeli officials had told Washington that Hezbollah was reconstituting its military capabilities faster than the Lebanese armed forces could degrade them. It said neither Beirut nor Damascus could be trusted to contain the threat on Israel’s northern borders.