Lebanon PM says Beirut working for 'complete Israeli withdrawal' / Photo: - - Lebanese Prime Minister's Press Office/AFP
Lebanon PM says Beirut working for 'complete Israeli withdrawal'
Lebanon is working towards a "complete Israeli withdrawal" from areas it occupies, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Wednesday on a visit to a village where Lebanon's army recently deployed.
"We will continue mobilising our political and diplomatic efforts to secure a complete Israeli withdrawal from the south," he said in Zawtar al-Gharbiya.
Israeli forces were previously present on the outskirts of the village following the war with Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Salam's visit came a day after Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met with his US counterpart Donald Trump at the White House, where he "stressed the urgent need for a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory".
Under a US-sponsored agreement signed last month, Lebanon's army is to disarm Hezbollah and the Israeli military is to withdraw from "pilot zones" where Lebanese forces will subsequently deploy.
Hezbollah has rejected the agreement and refuses to lay down its weapons.
Lebanon's military said on Tuesday that Israeli forces "opened fire" near troops deploying at Zawtar al-Gharbiya.
Israel's army said troops fired "warning shots into the air" after Lebanese soldiers entered an area that was "not part of the pilot area".
Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war by attacking Israel in support of Tehran on March 2, triggering major Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion.
After planting a Lebanese flag in Zawtar al-Gharbiya, Salam said "in parallel with the army's deployment, we will continue opening roads, removing rubble and securing essential services, enabling our people to return safely and with dignity to their homes and villages".
- Israeli flag over castle -
The war caused widespread destruction, mainly in the south, though violence has declined since the signing of a US-Iran memorandum last month and the Lebanon-Israel framework deal.
In Zawtar al-Gharbiya, dozens of residents waited for permission to check on their homes.
"We will enter the town with our heads held high, thanks to the presence of the Lebanese army," Abbas Yaghi, 73, told AFP.
The military had told residents on Tuesday to avoid entering "until the security situation stabilises".
The army is conducting a sweep of the village, which is contiguous with its Israeli-occupied neighbour, Zawtar al-Shariqya.
Israeli troops still launch intermittent strikes on nearby towns. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported drone attacks on Nabatieh al-Fawqa and the Khardali area on Wednesday, as well as artillery shelling on the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge.
"We will follow the army if it gives us permission to enter," said Mostapha Ammar, a 60-year-old resident of Zawtar al-Sharqiya.
Wafaa Ismail, 64, also from Zawtar al-Sharqiya, was not granted permission to enter the neighbouring village as Salam visited.
"He should have brought the people in with him so he could claim victory," she said.
The NNA said Israeli troops "carried out an incursion towards the Dubieh area" near the town of Shaqra, further south near the border, and "raised the Israeli flag in the historic Dubieh castle".
Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salame on X called the move a "hostile, provocative act", saying Lebanon would "spare no effort to restore sovereignty" over castles in the south.
In May, Israeli forces seized south Lebanon's strategic crusader-era Qalaat al-Chakif, also known as Beaufort Castle.
The United Nations looks set to list five south Lebanon castles including Beaufort and Dubieh, also known as Qalaat Chakra, as world treasures under threat, as UNESCO member states meet in South Korea.
J.Pavlidis--AN-GR
