Israel’s military occupation in parts of southern Lebanon is undermining Beirut’s attempts to restore sovereignty over a nation reeling from decades of conflict, the country’s prime minister has told CNN.
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.
The “Israeli presence in Lebanon is a red line for everyone. This is not a red line for Hezbollah alone,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson in Dubai, where he’s attending the Arab Media Forum and meeting Emirati leadership.
“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.
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