LEBANON:(The COW News Digital)Lebanon’s president said on Friday a state monopoly on weapons was inevitable and urged a committee supervising a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to ensure the army was the only armed presence in the country’s south.
Under heavy US pressure and fearing expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, which emerged badly weakened from more than a year of hostilities with Israel that largely ended with a ceasefire last November.
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Despite the truce, Israel has kept up frequent strikes on Lebanon, mainly saying it has been targeting Hezbollah, which it accuses of rearming.
Under a government-approved plan, Lebanon’s army is to dismantle Hezbollah military infrastructure south of the Litani river — some 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the border — by the end of the year, before tackling the rest of the country.
Ensuring state control over weapons and decisions of war and peace is “important and inevitable” President Joseph Aoun said in a speech on the eve of the country’s independence day.
He said Lebanon was ready to entrust the truce supervisory committee, comprising the United States, France, Lebanon, Israel and United Nations peacekeepers, with “making sure that in the south Litani region, only the Lebanese army is exerting its sovereignty by its own means”.
He also said Lebanon was ready to negotiate under US or international sponsorship “any agreement which will put a permanent end to the transborder aggressions”.
Aoun made the speech from southern Lebanon, where Israel still maintains troops in five areas that it deems strategic.
He urged “Lebanon’s friends and brotherly countries, to provide oversight throughout this process by establishing clear and guaranteed timelines, implementing an international mechanism of support to the Lebanese army, as well as assisting in the reconstruction efforts”.
Doing so will help ensure “that all weapons are in the hands of the state, on the entirety of the Lebanese soil”, he added.
As Israeli strikes continue, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said one person was killed on Friday in a raid strike on south Lebanon.
According to the health ministry, more than 330 people have been killed in Lebanon and 945 wounded since the ceasefire.
UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz, pointed to “a broader pattern of unlawful killings and violations of the ceasefire agreement by Israel”.
Tidball-Binz is an independent expert mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but who does not speak on behalf of the United Nations.
