No firm deadlines expected from Cabinet session discussing north Litani disarmament

Today's cabinet session appears unlikely to be decisive in setting detailed timelines for the plan to confine weapons north of the Litani River, a media report said.

“Observers do not rule out the possibility that this article will be a contentious issue, especially since the contacts made in the past two days have not yielded a solution acceptable to all parties,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday.

According to unnamed sources, Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal will present the results of his visits to the United States and Saudi Arabia at the beginning of the session, ahead of the support conference in Paris. He will emphasize that the plan to confine weapons north of the Litani requires bolstering capabilities in terms of both personnel and equipment.

Haykal will also outline the general vision for the northern Litani phase to Cabinet, now that the plan is clear in all its details. However, he will not specify a completion date, but he will commit to a reasonable timeframe for achieving this, which will not be open-ended, Nidaa al-Watan said.

Ministers from the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb Party will meanwhile “acknowledge the tremendous effort being made by the army, but they will insist on the necessity of adhering to a specific deadline in the eyes of the international community, which will no longer tolerate delays and stalling tactics by the government.”

The Lebanese Forces and Kataeb ministers will categorically reject any talk of merely “containing” weapons in the second phase, the newspaper added.

Meanwhile, sources close to the Shiite Duo revealed that their ministers oppose any decision that would impose a specific deadline regarding the issue of weapons north of the Litani River. They also completely reject completing the weapons containment process before Israel takes concrete steps, considering the issue of the Litani River north to be subject to internal dialogue, Nidaa al-Watan said.

“The ministers of the (Shiite) Duo have clear instructions to walk out of the session if the plan to contain weapons north of the Litani River is adhered to along with a timetable for implementation. Political indicators suggest that the Duo’s approach will initially focus on managing the session rather than confronting it, thus preventing its collapse or disruption and ensuring the continuation of discussions within the framework of internal consensus,” the daily added.