PHOTO: By THOMAS COEX/AFP/GETTY

The former Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, General Gadi Eisenkot admitted that the long stay of the army in Lebanon (1982-2000) was a strategic mistake, and cost Tel Aviv a heavy price.

Iran Press/Middle East: In an interview with the Israel Hayom newspaper on Saturday on the 20th anniversary of the unilateral Israeli army withdrawal from Lebanon, Eisenkot said that Hezbollah had succeeded in its strategic goal with the Israeli army, which was to remove Israel from Lebanon through a guerrilla war and war of attrition campaign against the Zionist occupiers.

Eisenkot added that Hezbollah had succeeded, through a series of sophisticated military operations, in embarrassing the Israeli army and causing a number of deaths among the Israeli army, forcing it to leave Lebanon.

He noted that he agreed with the opinion of the former Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, of the necessity of getting out of Lebanon.

General Eisenkot indicated that Barak’s primary intention was to withdraw from southern Lebanon through an agreement with the Syrians and the Lebanese, but in the end he withdrew in a unilateral move that was condemned by some Israeli politicians.

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