Lebanon PM says Beirut working for ‘complete Israeli withdrawal’

ZAWTAR AL-GHARBIYAH, Lebanon - Beirut is working towards a “complete Israeli withdrawal” from areas it occupies, Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on July 22 on a visit to a village where Lebanon’s army recently deployed.

“We will continue mobilising our political and diplomatic efforts to secure a complete Israeli withdrawal from the south,” he said in Zawtar al-Gharbiya, one of several “pilot zones” intended to demonstrate that the Lebanese army can remove and disarm Iran-backed Hezbollah as part of a Washington-sponsored deal with Israel.

The Lebanese military had begun deploying in the village on July 21. Israeli forces were previously present on its outskirts.

Salam made his statement a day after Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met with his US counterpart Donald Trump at the White House, where Aoun said he “stressed the urgent need for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory”.

Under the agreement signed in June, Lebanon’s army is meant to disarm Hezbollah in the “pilot zones” it will operate in, banning military activity from any non-state group to pave the way for future Israeli withdrawals from other areas.

The group has repeatedly rejected the agreement and refuses to lay down its weapons.

However, the military said on July 21 that Israeli forces “opened fire in the vicinity of these units,” adding that the incident would hinder the deployment.

The Israeli military said it had only fired “warning shots into the air” after Lebanese soldiers entered an area that was “not part of the pilot area”.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war by attacking Israel in support of Tehran on March 2, prompting major Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion.

After planting a Lebanese flag in the village, Salam said that “in parallel with the army’s deployment, we will continue opening roads, removing rubble, and securing essential services, enabling our people to return safely and with dignity to their homes and villages”.

Israeli strikes on Lebanon have killed more than 4,300 people since March, according to the Lebanese authorities, while Israeli forces have demolished scores of buildings in the south.

The violence has dropped off sharply since the signing of a framework agreement between the United States and Iran in June and the Lebanon-Israel deal.

While more than a million people were displaced by the violence, more than 700,000 have returned to their homes over the past few weeks, according to the United Nations. AFP