BEIRUT, Lebanon: Lebanon’s caretaker government has asked the United States and France to pressure Israel to honour a week-old ceasefire after several violations, Lebanese sources told Reuters on Tuesday, as Israel threatened to expand the war if its truce with Hezbollah collapses.
Deadly Israeli strikes on south Lebanon and Hezbollah rocket launches on an Israeli military post on Monday have put a US-brokered ceasefire between the two in an increasingly fragile position less than a week after it came into effect.
Top Lebanese officials have urged Washington and Paris to press Israel to uphold a ceasefire, after dozens of military operations on Lebanese soil, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters.
Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a close Hezbollah ally who negotiated the deal on behalf of Lebanon, spoke to officials at the White House and French presidency late Monday and expressed concern about the state of the ceasefire, Reuters reported citing Lebanese sources.
Neither the French presidency nor the foreign ministry were immediately available to comment. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot spoke to his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar on Monday, saying both sides should adhere to the ceasefire.
US State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters on Monday that the ceasefire “is holding” and that the US had “anticipated that there might be violations.”
Meanwhile, Israel threatened to return to war in Lebanon and said this time its attacks would go deeper and target the Lebanese state itself.
Israel said it would hold Lebanon responsible for failing to disarm militants who violated the truce.
“If we return to war we will act strongly, we will go deeper, and the most important thing they need to know: that there will no longer be an exemption for the state of Lebanon,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said.
“If until now we separated the state of Lebanon from Hezbollah… it will no longer be [like this],” he said during a visit to the northern border area.
Despite last week’s truce, Israeli forces have continued strikes in southern Lebanon ignoring the agreement to halt attacks and withdraw beyond the Litani River, about 30 km (18 miles) from the frontier.
On Monday, Hezbollah shelled an Israeli military post, while Lebanese authorities said at least 12 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon.
The truce came into effect on November 27 and prohibits Israel from conducting offensive military operations in Lebanon while requiring Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah from launching attacks on Israel.
The agreement gives Israeli troops 60 days to withdraw from south Lebanon.
A monitoring mechanism chaired by the United States is tasked with monitoring, verifying and helping enforce the truce, but it has yet to begin work.
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Lebanon’s PM Mikati on Monday met in Beirut with US General Jasper Jeffers, who will chair the monitoring committee and stressed the need for Israeli troops to swiftly withdraw.
Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that France’s representative to the committee, General Guillaume Ponchin, will arrive in Beirut on Wednesday and that the committee will hold its first meeting on Thursday.
“There is an urgency to finalize the mechanism, otherwise it will be too late,” the source told Reuters, referring to Israel’s gradual intensification of strikes despite the truce.
Miller said the monitoring mechanism would begin its work “in the coming days.”
