Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, on Thursday, rejected Israel’s decision to maintain an IDF presence in five locations in south Lebanon after next week’s deadline set by the ceasefire agreement.
Berry said the United States, the key mediator of the ceasefire, “informed me that the Israeli occupation will withdraw from villages it still occupies on February 18, but it will remain in five points.” He added: “I informed them in my name and on behalf of President General Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Judge Nawaf Salam of our absolute rejection of this proposal.”
However, a Trump administration official told Al Arabiya on Thursday that the presence of Israeli troops at five locations in Lebanon would depend on the deployment of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) along the southern border.
“Israeli presence in the five points directly bears on whether the Government of Lebanon ultimately does what it has promised to do, and unlike the Biden administration we will not be grading on a curve,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
According to the same official, the first test of newly elected Lebanese President Joseph Aoun’s leadership will be whether the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), which he previously led before becoming president, enforces the ceasefire agreement Lebanon signed in November 2024 and counters Hezbollah’s efforts to reassert itself.
The official also suggested that Aoun has a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to lead Lebanon away from the influence of Hezbollah and Iran, a challenge for which he has a mandate from the people.
Speaker Berri met with US Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson and US Major General Jasper Jeffers, who co-chairs a five-party committee, which includes the United States, France, Lebanon, Israel, and UN peacekeepers, tasked with identifying and addressing ceasefire violations.
“I refused to discuss any extension to the deadline for Israel’s withdrawal,” Berri said. “It is the responsibility of the Americans to enforce the withdrawal, otherwise they will have caused the greatest setback for the government.”
The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire has been in effect since November 27, following more than a year of hostilities, including two months of a full-scale war.
As part of the agreement, Lebanon’s military was to deploy in the south alongside UN peacekeepers as the IDF withdrew at the end of a 60-day period, which was later extended until February 18.
Hezbollah was also to vacate its positions in the south, near the Israeli border, during this time, and move north to the other side of the Litani River, some 28 kilometers from Israel’s border. It hasn’t. Instead, Israel has been forced to violate the ceasefire frequently to attack Hezbollah combatants in the forbidden zone, as well as bomb from the air Hezbollah warehouses with recently-transported weapons and ammunition, care of the Iranian government.
