Lebanon is urged to deploy army on border, pull back Hezbollah and Palestinians
International contacts at the highest levels were held with Lebanese authorities after caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that Lebanon is still committed to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, a media report said.
“Lebanese authorities were urged to honor their pledges regarding the resolution,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday.
“As long as Lebanon has declared its commitment to this resolution, the army and UNIFIL forces must be tasked with controlling the southern border and Hezbollah and the Palestinians must withdraw,” the daily quoted diplomatic sources as saying.
“An international message in this regard has been relayed to Speaker Nabih Berri and (caretaker) Prime Minister (Najib) Mikati,” the sources said.
“There is no other plan or solution other than this step, or else the so-called new rules of engagement, which Hezbollah is practicing, mean that there will be a possibility to descend into war in light of the number of victims on the two sides of the border,” the sources added.
The sources explained that in order to “eliminate the Hezbollah excuse that is linking the southern front to Israeli ground incursion into Gaza, and also to eliminate Israel’s excuse to wage a war, Lebanon will receive an international-American guarantee that there will be no war should it carry out the step related to the army and the U.N. forces.”
“The international community will then shoulder the responsibility of keeping Lebanon safe from war,” the sources added.
26 October 2023, 15:32
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Our moment of choosing has arrived and been recognized: Will Lebanon's Army assert its control over the country's border and foreign entanglements with Israel and the disputed territories, or will Hezbollah continue to be allowed discretion to implement Iran's projects as it see fit?
The diplomats are clear. Get control over Hezbollah and the Palestinians' adventures across the borders or prepare for the country's destruction which the International Community will not prevent or remediate.
"Choose and do it now."
It is profoundly obvious what most Lebanese want the government to do.
26 October 2023, 23:14
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If the Government of the Republic of Lebanon really wants to adhere to Resolution 1701 as it says, then the first thing that it has to do is to order the Lebanese Armed Forces under General Aoun to take up positions along the whole border with Israel and eject Hizballah from all of its positions south of the Litani River. Without this Lebanon can not claim to be in adherance to 1701.
