By Jana Choukeir, Eman Abouhassira and Pesha Magid
June 27 (Reuters) – Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem rejected a U.S.-brokered security agreement between Lebanon and Israel on Saturday a day after it was signed, describing it as a surrender to Israel.
In the latest example of ongoing hostilities despite repeated ceasefires and agreements, Israel launched a drone strike in Lebanon’s south on Saturday.
More than a million Lebanese have been driven from their homes by a conflict that has run in parallel with the wider Iran war. Hezbollah and Iran say Washington pledged to end hostilities in Lebanon as part of its memorandum of understanding signed two weeks ago to end the wider war.
The framework agreed on Friday provides for a phased Israeli withdrawal from some parts of southern Lebanon, alongside the deployment of the Lebanese army. But Israeli forces would be permitted to remain in an expanded security zone for the time being.
In a statement, Qassem called it “null and void”, and accused the Lebanese government of making unilateral concessions and undermining Lebanon’s sovereignty.
He criticised provisions linking Israel’s withdrawal to Hezbollah’s disarmament, saying they effectively legitimised Israel’s military presence and crossed “all red lines”.
The group would continue its armed resistance, he added: “We did not leave the battlefield in the most difficult circumstances, and we will not leave it.”
With hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, mainly Shi’ite Muslims, still unable to return to homes in Israeli-occupied areas, anger over the agreement spread beyond Hezbollah to Shi’ites more widely. The Amal movement of Lebanon’s highest-ranking Shi’ite politician, parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, denounced the agreement as unbalanced, and said it would entrench conditions favouring Israel.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz praised the framework agreement, sying it permits Israel to maintain its occupation of a so-called security zone in Lebanon and bars the return of displaced residents.
Lebanon’s state news agency said an Israeli drone struck Nabatieh al-Fawqa on Saturday. The area is outside the security zone shown on a map published by Israel of the territory its troops will continue to control.
The Israeli military told Reuters it had carried out the strike, using a drone because it had no troops in the immediate area. It said it targeted an individual who posed a threat to its forces, without giving further details or evidence.
Qassem said the Iran-U.S. memorandum of understanding reached earlier this month, which guarantees Lebanon’s territorial integrity, should serve as the basis for ending the conflict, rather than Friday’s Washington agreement.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir, Eman Abouhassira in Dubai and Pesha Magid in Jerusalem; Editing by Peter Graff)
Comments