Israel seems ready to maintain his troops in Lebanon beyond the deadline

Israel is about to occupy certain parts of southern Lebanon after the expiration on Sunday of the deadline for its full military withdrawal, suggested on Friday the Israeli government in a press release, in the midst of Israeli concerns about the fact that Hezbollah There remains active and doubts about the capacity of the Lebanese army to thwart the intervention of the militia. recurrence.

Under the terms of a truce between Israel and Hezbollah at the end of November, Israeli troops were supposed to withdraw within 60 days of Lebanon areas which they had recently torn from the group’s control. Hezbollah also had to withdraw from the region, allowing the Lebanese army to assert its control over an area where Hezbollah, Shiite force and a political movement supported by Iran, dominated for a long time.

Less than two days before the deadline, the office of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, announced that the withdrawal of Israel depended on the assertion by the Lebanese army of its total control over the region, adding that the calendar was flexible and implied that the Israeli troops would remain in Lebanon beyond the threshold.

“As the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully applied by Lebanon, the progressive withdrawal process will continue in full cooperation with the United States,” the statement of the office of the Israeli Prime Minister said.

Asked for clarifications, the Prime Minister’s office refused to say if this meant that Israeli troops would remain definitively in Lebanon after the deadline. But the Israeli leaders told American and French mediators that they wanted to keep certain soldiers in southern Lebanon beyond Sunday, according to three informed officials of negotiations.

There was no immediate response from the Lebanese government. In a brief message, the Hezbollah press service said it was waiting for the reaction of countries that supervise the ceasefire, the United States and France. In a longer declaration published Thursday, Hezbollah said that any “breakdown” of the agreement would not be tolerated, because this would constitute “a blatant violation of the agreement, an attack on Lebanese sovereignty and the start of a new occupation chapter. »»