Cnn
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The Israeli government claims that its soldiers will not withdraw from Lebanon on the deadline on Sunday, in violation of a ceasefire agreement which ended months of conflict with Hezbollah.
Israel was due to withdraw all its forces from southern Lebanon as part of the agreement, but the Israeli government said that certain forces would remain in southern Lebanon, blaming Lebanon for not having maintained its end of the agreement.
“The withdrawal of the FDI (Israeli Defense Forces) is conditional to the deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon,” the office of the Israeli Prime Minister said in a statement. “Since the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully applied by Lebanon, the progressive withdrawal process will continue, in full coordination with the United States.”
Under the ceasefire agreement in November, Israeli forces and Hezbollah agreed to withdraw from southern Lebanon by January 26, the end of a 60-day period stipulated in the agreement.
Hezbollah warned on Thursday that if the Israeli army remained in Lebanon last Sunday, it would be “considered a cheeky violation of the agreement”.
The Israeli army invaded southern Lebanon on October 1 – the culmination of a one -year -old war with Hezbollah, which attacked the territory holding an Israeli on October 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas.
The Israeli government told the administration of the American president Donald Trump that he wanted Israeli troops to remain in Lebanon for at least 30 additional days, an Israeli official told CNN. The Israeli security firm met Thursday evening to discuss the issue.
It is not clear if the Trump administration responded to the request or took it to the Lebanese government. The envoy of former president Joe Biden negotiated the agreement between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group supported by Iran.
In a statement, an official of the US Department of Defense seemed to suggest that the calendar could be malleable.
Michael Herzog, Ambassador of Israel in Washington, said on Thursday on the Israeli army radio that a 60-day period stated in a cease-fire agreement in November “is not in the rock”.
“We are currently in discussion with the Trump administration in order to extend the duration necessary for the Lebanese army to deploy and fulfill its functions according to the agreement,” he said. “There is an understanding in the new administration of our security needs and our position, and I believe that we will also achieve an understanding in this issue.”
In a statement to CNN on Thursday, an official of the US Department of Defense did not explicitly say if the withdrawal was on the right track.
“The cessation of hostilities commitments which entered into force on November 27, 2024 indicates that the withdrawal of the FDI from the southern region of Litani should be accomplished in 60 days,” said the official. “This chronology has been set to try to generate a speed of action and progress. And progress has been made. »»
“The Lebanese armed forces have shown that they had the commitment, the will and the ability to carry out the arrangement,” added the official.
According to the November agreement, Israeli and Hezbollah forces must withdraw from southern Lebanon by January 26, The end of this 60 -day period.
An Israeli official who described Israel’s request in the United States said ISRAEL had asked for an extension of 30 days and said that it would re-evaluate the viability of withdrawal from southern Lebanon at the end of this extension. The official said that all the outposts that Israel had asked to maintain are alongside the Israeli-Léban border.
The Lebanese soldiers and the United Nations peacekeepers will be the only forces authorized in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is due to draw its forces north of the Litani river in Lebanon – a border beyond which the militant group was not supposed to have progressed under a resolution of the United Nations Security Council of 2006.
“This is not yet the case,” said Israeli government spokesman David Mencer, about the withdrawal of Hezbollah and the deployment of Lebanese soldiers during a briefing on Thursday. “There is movement, but it does not move fast enough.”
Hezbollah warned Thursday that an Israeli violation of the agreement would force the Lebanese state “to face it by all the means available to it by international treaties in order to recover the land and to tear it away from the occupation claws. ”
There have been speculation in Israel for some time that the government would seek to change the terms of its ceasefire with Hezbollah once Trump has taken office.
The exact situation in southern Lebanon is decidedly opaque. The Israeli army has spent in recent months of ceasefire, feverishly destroying the weapons of Hezbollah and military infrastructure and leveling several Lebanese villages near the border. The military posture of Hezbollah is not clear.
The clearest image was painted by the American army, which with the French government and the United Nations monitors the ceasefire.
US major-general Jasper Jeffers, who heads the American effort, said after a trip to southern Lebanon last week that “Lebanese control points and patrols were running effectively throughout southwest Lebanon”. He said that the belligerents were “on a very positive path to continue withdrawing the FDI as planned”.
Earlier this month, Lebanon Parliament elected Joseph Aoun, supported by the United States and former military chief, as president. He ended more than two years of dead end which had led to a presidential void. The election was caused by a solid Saudi effort to reach the necessary support for Aoun.
In his speech of acceptance, considered a plan for a six -year term, Aoun has sworn to monopolize weapons under the mandate of the State. It was an overwhelming promise, marking a clear break with unwritten politics old decades to preserve the militant wing of Hezbollah which was de facto responsible for facing the Israeli forces.
American optimism on the ceasefire is not shared by many civilians from northern Israel, who have been slow to return to the communities emptied by the war. Residents of Kiryat Shmona should demonstrate against the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon on Sunday.
“Most communities are still empty,” Sarit Zehavi, who heads the Alma, research and education center, specializing in security issues in northern Israel. “People want to come back.”
There is a general fear in northern Israel, she said, that military withdrawal will give Hezbollah carte blanche to deploy near the border of Israel, under the nose of the Lebanese army.
“The Lebanese army is far from disarming Hezbollah,” she said. “We are very worried about what will happen if the FDI retires completely and the application of the FDI will stop, because we do not see the Lebanese army doing anything.”