French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (pictured) said Thursday that France has proposed a plan for UN peacekeepers, including French troops, to take over key positions and ensure Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon by the February 18 deadline. [Getty]
France has put together a proposal for United Nations peacekeepers, including French troops, replace Israeli forces at key points to ensure those forces leave Lebanon by a February 18 deadline, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Thursday.
Israel’s public broadcaster said on Wednesday the US had authorised a “long term” Israeli troop presence in southern Lebanon, after sources told news agency Reuters Israel had sought an extension to a February 18 deadline to withdraw its forces.
Under a truce deal brokered by Washington in November, Israeli troops were granted 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon where they had waged a ground offensive against fighters from Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah since early October.
Hezbollah combatants were to leave the zone and Lebanese troops were to deploy in the area within the same period.
“We have worked to formulate a proposal that can satisfy the security expectations of Israel which planned to stay longer at certain points on the blue line,” Barrot told reporters after a conference on Syria in Paris.
He said that the proposal would see UNIFIL peacekeepers, including French forces, substituting Israeli forces at observation points and that the United Nations backed the idea.
“It is now up to us to convince the Israelis that this solution is likely to allow a complete and final withdrawal,” Barrot said.
The initial deadline has already been extended from January 26 until February 18.
A Lebanese official and a foreign diplomat in Lebanon told Reuters on Wednesday that Israel had now asked to remain in five posts in the south for a further 10 days.Â
Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri said on Thursday that Beirut rejected Israel’s demand to remain in five southern locations.
The United States “informed me that the Israeli occupation will withdraw from villages it still occupies on February 18, but it will remain in five points,” Hezbollah ally Berri told reporters, according to a statement released by his office.
“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,” the statement added.
Earlier, Berri had met with US ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson and US Major General Jasper Jeffers.
The American general co-chairs a committee involving the United States, France, Lebanon, Israel and UN peacekeepers tasked with ensuring any ceasefire violations are identified and dealt with.
“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”.
 ‘Honour commitments’
On Saturday, Lebanon’s prime minister named a new government, with the weakening of long-dominant Hezbollah bringing to a close a two-year period of rule by caretaker authorities.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres‘ deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said “we continue to urge Israel and Lebanon to honour their commitments to the cessation of hostilities understanding”.
“Continued progress in Lebanese Armed Forces redeployment and Israeli Defence Force withdrawal is crucial,” Haq said, adding that “the parties must avoid any action that could raise tensions, endanger civilians and further delay their return to their towns and villages on both sides”.
Haq added that the “UN continues to urge the full implementation of Resolution 1701 as a comprehensive path towards longer term peace, security and stability on both sides of the Blue Line.”
He was referring to the UN Security Council decision that ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Under Resolution 1701, only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers can be deployed in southern Lebanon.
