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2025-01-18 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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UN chief: UNIFIL found 100 Hezbollah arms caches in south Lebanon since truce began
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[IsraelTimes] Only peacekeepers, Lebanese military should be in the area, says Guterres, calling for end to Israeli ‘occupation’; Macron, Aoun also demand IDF withdraw, as Jan. 26 deadline looms
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that UN peacekeepers have discovered more than “100 weapons caches” belonging to Hezbollah and its allies in south Lebanon since the November 27 ceasefire between Israel and the terror group.
Well done, O UNIFIL peacekeepers! So did you destroy the caches in place, give the nasty things back to their original owners, give them to the Lebanese army (many of whose soldiers double dip on the Hezbollah payroll), or did you back away quickly and forget exactly where on the map this latest find is located? Guterres, speaking near the Israeli border, and French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Beirut, also called on Israel to withdraw from south Lebanon.
Have Hezbollah and the Lebanese army both fulfilled the conditions of the hudna? Israel’s withdrawal is contingent on both of them doing what was promised. Nobody expects UNIFIL to do more than look pretty, since they have refused to do more than that since the last time Israel withdrew. Guterres reiterated that under the November 27 agreement, Lebanese government forces and UNIFIL peacekeepers are the only parties entitled to bear arms in Lebanon south of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border with Israel.
In an apparent reference to Israel and Hezbollah, Guterres said that the “presence of armed personnel, assets and weapons” in south Lebanon — other than those of the Lebanese army and the UNIFIL peacekeeping force — would “undermine Lebanon’s stability” and also violate UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Never mind Hezbollah and the Lebanese army violating 1701 every day until the IDF had to go back over the border. Guterres, who spoke on a visit to the UNIFIL headquarters in southern Lebanon’s Naqura, near the Israeli border, said Israel’s operations inside Lebanon “must stop.”
“The continued occupation by the Israel [military] inside the UNIFIL area operations and the conduct of military operations in Lebanese territory are violations of Resolution 1701,” said Guterres, who also met with Macron in Beirut on Friday.
Resolution 1701 requires Hezbollah to withdraw permanently north of the Litani River. Have they done so? Israel has said its operations in south Lebanon were in response to Hezbollah’s violations of the ceasefire, and accused UNIFIL and the Lebanese military of failing to enforce both Resolution 1701 and the November 27 agreement.
Under the agreement, the IDF is required to cede all of its positions in southern Lebanon to Lebanese and UNIFIL forces within 60 days, by January 26. At the same time, Hezbollah is required to retreat north of the Litani.
The agreement, which ended almost 14 months of war, allows Israel to act against imminent threats by Hezbollah, while less imminent threats are to be referred to a five-member committee comprising representatives of the United States, France, Lebanon, Israel and UNIFIL.
Macron, whose government helped broker the deal, called on Israel on Friday to accelerate its troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
“We need a total withdrawal of the Israeli army,” Macron said, speaking in Beirut alongside Lebanon’s new president, Joseph Aoun, who also stressed the “importance of consolidating the [Israel-Hezbollah] ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal,” according to an X post by the Lebanese presidency.
Macron said France supports “the increased power of the Lebanese armed forces and their deployment in the south.”
“The Lebanese Armed Forces constitute a pillar of the sovereignty of Lebanon,” added Macron.
Prove it. He also hailed Aoun’s election, saying it represented the possibility of a new path for Lebanon and that “the true, authentic Lebanon has returned.”
That would be really nice. Macron is the first foreign head of state to visit Lebanon since Aoun’s election, which was supported by France, the United States and Saudi Arabia. As a former French protectorate, Beirut has strong historical ties with Paris.
Aoun had led the LAF until the Lebanese parliament elected him head of state on January 9, ending a two-year vacancy.
Aoun’s appointment signaled a shift in Lebanon’s power balance after Iran-backed Hezbollah was left deeply weakened by its war with Israel.
The new president has vowed to uphold the Lebanese government’s monopoly on the right to bear arms — a thinly veiled threat against Hezbollah, the only group in Lebanon that refused to surrender its weapons to the state following the 1975-1990 civil war.
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Posted by trailing wife 2025-01-18 00:00||
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File under: Hezbollah
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Posted by Rambler 2025-01-18 00:36||
2025-01-18 00:36||
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Posted by Grom the Affective 2025-01-18 02:13||
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Posted by Glusomp Spealet4328 2025-01-18 05:05||
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Posted by Grom the Affective 2025-01-18 05:08||
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Posted by swksvolFF 2025-01-18 14:11||
2025-01-18 14:11||
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