Report: Lebanon to demand Israel withdrawal from towns in al-Shaqif vicinity
The Lebanese military delegation to the talks with Israel will carry a package of proposals that are not limited to establishing a ceasefire and stopping hostilities but extend to releasing Lebanese captives held by Israel and discussing the formation of an international force with U.N. Security Council’s backing to replace the UNIFIL peacekeeping forces immediately upon the expiration of their mandate at the end of this year, a ministerial source directly involved in the negotiations said.
The ministerial source also told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s participation in the U.N. General Assembly meetings enabled him to rally support for Lebanon's viewpoint calling for deploying an international force to replace UNIFIL.
The source confirmed that the military delegation will propose an Israeli withdrawal from the towns located in the vicinity of Beaufort (al-Shaqif) Castle, allowing the Lebanese Army to deploy there, especially since Israel had previously requested including these towns within the army's deployment zone south of the Litani River. The source, however, clarified that this request came prior to the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
The source added that the Israeli army's continued bulldozing of towns along the so-called Yellow Line and its systematic destruction of remaining homes will be on the agenda of the Florida meeting, particularly given that “there is no justification for turning the area south of the Litani into scorched earth, or for continuing to destroy its towns after the Israeli army announced it had completed the destruction of Hezbollah's infrastructure in this region.”
The same source expressed that merely reinforcing the Lebanese Army's deployment would strengthen the government's position and weaken the arguments Hezbollah uses to retain its weapons. He questioned: "Where lies the interest in keeping Lebanon on the waiting list and suspending the implementation of the agreement until after the elections in Israel, and later the midterm elections in the United States?"
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