Israeli cabinet has convened today to discuss the security situation on Israel’s northern front amid concerns that a report linking Hezbullah to the murder of a Lebanese prime minister could spark conflict. Israeli PM Netanyahu is concerned Hezbullah may try to ‘take over’ Lebanon after the excepted  release of a report implicating the group in the 2005 murder of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri.

Earlier this week Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Israel must ensure that tension within Lebanon will not spill across the border. “We – both in our intelligence and operational networks – need to be alert so conditions don’t deteriorate, and to monitor the possibility that someone will try to divert that tension toward us.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to Lebanon, in order to assist in preventing a civil war in the country. “Should any signs of war surface in Lebanon, God forbid, Turkey and other countries in the region will do everything they can to prevent that war,” Erdogan told the Lebanese daily As-Safir in an interview in Ankara on the eve of his two-day visit. “Today we stand by Lebanon as we always have,” he said, adding that he did not wish to see the tiny Mediterranean country descend again into civil war”.