THE Israel informed the United States that in order to accept a ceasefire in Lebanonits air force must be able to access the neighboring country’s airspace to disarm the Hezbollahas revealed by the website Axios.
Israel last week delivered a document to the White House outlining the terms for a diplomatic solution to end the war in Lebanon, two American and two Israeli officials told Axios.
The document was sent by the Israeli prime minister’s office ahead of President Biden’s envoy Amos Hochstein’s visit to Beirut on Monday to discuss a diplomatic solution to the war, Israeli officials said.
According to the same sources, the Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, who is a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sent the document to Hochstein last Thursday.
“It is an Israeli requirement that the IDF be allowed to engage in active enforcement to ensure that Hezbollah does not rearm and rebuild its military infrastructure in areas of southern Lebanon close to the border,” said an Israeli official. He also added that Israel requires its air force to have freedom of flight in Lebanese airspace.
Contrary to the requests of UN resolution 1701
The critical issue is that Israel’s demands contradict UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which states that the Lebanese Armed Forces and the UN Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) have the authority and responsibility to impose a cease-fire. fire between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We want resolution 1701 to have greater oversight. Our main message is that if the Lebanese army and UNIFIL do more, the Israeli armed forces will do less and vice versa,” said an Israeli official.
Americans, however, believe it is highly unlikely that Lebanon and the UN will agree to these Israeli terms, which would dramatically undermine Lebanon’s sovereignty.
US envoy Amos Hochstein has contacts in Beirut for a large deployment of Lebanese armed forces in southern Lebanon as part of any diplomatic solution to end the war in Lebanon. In recent years, the Lebanese army has had very limited forces in the region, which was mainly controlled by Hezbollah.
Hochstein wants at least 8,000 Lebanese troops to be deployed in southern Lebanon, the same sources said.
President Biden’s envoy also wants to update UNIFIL’s mandate so that it can help the Lebanese army prevent the deployment of armed individuals or groups that are not under the control of the Lebanese government near the border with Israel.
US officials admit, however, that since the 2006 war, UNIFIL has barely implemented Resolution 1701 and has not prevented Hezbollah from building large-scale military infrastructure in southern Lebanon.