Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem made a special broadcast over the weekend, announcing that the organization will not agree to fully disarm so long as Israeli ground troops remain in southern Lebanon as so long as Israeli warplanes continue to violate Lebanese airspace.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun confirmed last week that there are ongoing talks with Hezbollah aiming at their disarmament, with a goal to have it done this year. The ongoing Israeli attacks and occupation, however, look like they could be an obstacle.
Some progress has been made toward measures required under the November ceasefire. Last weekend, it was reported that Hezbollah had handed over most of its former military sites south of the Litani River. The Lebanese Army was taking those sites over, dismantling many, and also taking some sites north of the river, despite that not being required by the ceasefire.
Disarming is a tricky matter though. Despite Hezbollah reporting they don’t have any remaining presence south of the Litani, Israel carries out daily attacks against that area, usually on the pretext of targeting Hezbollah. Israel launched multiple deadly attacks on Sunday, killing one in Houla, in the south, and also killing one person in a drone strike against a car in Kfaryachit, a Maronite Christian village in the far north of Lebanon. Two other people were reported wounded in those strikes.
Aoun said the disarming process was a “sensitive, delicate issue,” adding that the repeated Israeli strikes against Lebanon create an unfavorable situation for completing the effort, and that Lebanon will not be forced to rush into it.
Qassem says Hezbollah has already fulfilled all obligations it had under the ceasefire. Meanwhile, Israel has carried out over 2,700 violations since the ceasefire went into effect on November 26. This includes both regular airstrikes and the active control of five military outposts Israeli forces built inside Lebanon during the ceasefire, which Defense Minister Israel Katz says they intend to retain indefinitely.
The pullout seems unlikely in a timely fashion, and indeed Israeli ground troops have been advancing deeper into Lebanon in recent days. Between that and the Israeli strikes, there is a sense that the war isn’t really over.
Post war reconstruction was seen as a top priority for President Aoun and other Lebanese officials. Over $11 billion in damage is reported to have been done to southern Lebanon during the invasion and occupation. The US has blocked Gulf states from providing any reconstruction aid to Lebanon until Israel is satisfied. That seems unlikely to happen, meaning the reconstruction is effectively on hold, and reorganizing Lebanese defense around the military as opposed to Hezbollah, is likely to only go so far so long as the wartime situation remains unresolved.
With Israel constantly on the defensive (offensive) how can anyone in Lebanon or Syria possibly disarm? The only way this can end is the USA defaulting on its $36 trillion debt, bringing home the troops, and leaving Israel to fend for itself. The dollar will soon be toilet paper. May peace prevail.
If Israel was forced to fend for themselves without any allies, they would have to level all those places that fire upon them, Israel has modern warfare technology for over 50 years to include nuclear, germ, chemical, and things I can't even pronounce if they are getting overrun.
So, you admit Israel has weapons of mass destruction. Chemical and biological weapons. You think that is OK. Who paid for their development?
So, why is the U.S. obligated to send Israel billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money, as well as weapons?
Under the Leahy law, Israel should get zilch.
Israel should be under U.S. sanctions.
And we, the U.S. of A., is committed to send Israel $3.8 billion of our tax dollars each and every year.
The Lebanese President is a fool.
Does he remember what happened to Libya.
Netanyahu is using that as a template for the rest of the Arab world.
Hezbollah is a fool for not using its rockets on Israeli forward positions, not just Tel Aviv.
You are a little deficient as the Arab world does not support Hezbollah. Hezbollah receives most of its financial, training, weapons, explosives, political, diplomatic, organizational aid, and intelligence from Iran.—Think before you post
You know that for a fact?
You have interviewed every leader in the Arab world?
You believe that the Ashkenazi Zionists in Tel Aviv do not control the U.S. DOD, Presidency, most "representatives" in the U.S. Congress?
You believe the attack on the U.S. Liberty was a "mistake".
You believe that the theft by Jonathan Pollard of top secret materials, which may have aided Israel to develop nuclear weapons, was wonderful, justifying his return to Israel as a hero?
Are you even American? Or, are you a Israeli college student hammering away on your computer keyboard, for shekels to pay for your education?
Where does Israel get ITS money, training, weapons, weapons training?
ME, AS WELL AS THE OTHER TAXPAYERS IN THE U.S.
So, do not harp about who gets what.
The only way Netanyahu can get away with this is the support of the USA, its Congress, and its President. My only hope is that the US economy collapses and we are unable to afford throwing billions at this Zionist monstrosity. We need a DEFENSIVE military.
US builds defense weapons, the money stays here, and those defensive weapons saves more Palestinian Arabs lives than Israelis. Because if all those thousands of Hamas and Hezbollah missiles and rockets were killing significant amounts of Israelis, Israel would have to level the places from which those rockets and missiles are being fired from, which they have had to do in some cases.
Hamas has never possessed "thousands" of rockets.
This is about the greater Israel agenda. See map below.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0b844874ae9456e62a61d70773e01556b149c044173f249fe87562a4d57cab43.png
Wise up Lebanon, Israel wants you dead.
Don’t make it easy for them.
Disarmament = full blown invasion.