Mikati praises Hezbollah 'restraint', says Hochstein didn't mention group 'pullback'
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has praised again Hezbollah's restraint despite the elevated number of deaths of its members.
The number of people killed by Israeli fire into south Lebanon since the start of the war in Gaza has risen to more than 200, with 147 of them belonging to Hezbollah.
Israel has also moved in recent weeks to a strategy of targeted killings after more than three months of near-daily clashes with Hezbollah.
"We see that Hezbollah is practicing restraint to preserve Lebanon’s best interest by not dragging it into open war," Mikati told Nidaa al-Watan newspaper, in remarks published Tuesday.
He added that U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein had carried during his last visit to Beirut an "acceptable proposal" that would bring a relative stability to the border, paving the way for permanent stability.
"He didn't mention to me anything about pulling back Hezbollah seven kilometers from the border," Mikati said.
Israel has been pushing for Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River, which lies about 30 km north of the border.
Hochstein had reportedly proposed in his visit earlier this month a cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel and an eight-kilometer pullback by Hezbollah from the border, which would allow for the return of displaced residents on both sides of the border.
Mikati said that the issues of the land border demarcation and the occupied territories will be raised once stability returns to the border.
Source: Naharnet
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