Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Wealthy Nation TodayWealthy Nation Today

Latest News

‘We want Israel out yesterday, not tomorrow:’ Lebanon’s leader urges US to pressure Israel to withdraw troops

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he would like to see the current United States administration put pressure on Israel to withdraw from five locations in southern Lebanon.

A US-mediated agreement in November last year paused months of fighting between the Israeli military and Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed militant group that operates in Lebanon. Israel has significantly weakened Hezbollah over the past year, killing much of its top leadership and severely degrading its power through mass airstrikes.

The prime minister said Lebanon has been honoring its commitments to the November agreement and that the Lebanese military is “consolidating control” over the south of the country and its borders.

Hezbollah is committed to an agreement that affirms that the Lebanese military is the only authority allowed to bear arms, Salam said Wednesday. However, “Israel has not honored its commitments,” he added.

“Israel’s argument is as follows… they need to be in these five points in order to have a better monitoring of the situation in southern Lebanon… but we are not in World War One…we are in the age of satellite imagery, of drones with cameras. They have balloons monitoring the region, let alone a network of spies operating on the ground,” Salam said.

“Israel’s presence is politically counterproductive. It’s undermining my government…we want Israel out yesterday, not tomorrow.”

Despite agreeing to withdraw from Lebanese territory as part of the US-mediated agreement, Israel has said that the Lebanese army has yet to take control of a region with Hezbollah presence. Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, said in March that the Israeli military would remain in these five points “indefinitely, to protect the residents of the north – regardless of any future negotiations.”

Along with the United States, France and the United Nations are monitoring the ceasefire.

“I’m sure they can testify that Lebanon has been honoring its commitments while Israel has not honored its commitments,” Salam said on the mediating countries.

Salam, who rose to prominence after presiding over the International Court of Justice during South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, was designated Lebanon’s prime minister in January in a surprise move that was seen as a blow to Hezbollah and its allies.

Widely seen as a reformist, the prime minister declared specific priorities for his mandate, including ending institutional corruption and regaining sovereignty over his country by disarming Hezbollah and Palestinian factions.

“The goal… is that the state should have exclusive monopoly over arms, over all its territory,” he said in the interview.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

You May Also Like

Latest News

Salvage crews have recovered the boom from the $40 million Bayesian luxury yacht, which sank off the coast of Sicily in August 2024, killing...

Latest News

It seems some parents in New Zealand just can’t get the message. Once again, King has topped the list of baby names rejected by...

Stock News

For those of you who are a bit more steeped in technical analysis, you’ve likely heard of Dow Theory. A set of principles developed...

Latest News

Think of Japan’s famed yakuza gangs and you might think of heavily tattooed men getting into bloody fights – the stuff of action films...