This Monday marked the first visit to Lebanon by the White House envoy, Amos Hochstein, since the beginning of the Israeli offensive almost a month ago, which has left nearly 2,000 dead. displaced more than a million people and beheaded Hezbollah. It is 1701, the unfulfilled UN resolution that ended the war between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in 2006 and reinforced the mission of the blue helmets in the south of Lebanon, about which the political debate revolves these days on both sides of the divide. The Lebanese Prime Minister, Nayib Mikati, and the President of Parliament, Nabih Berry (who negotiates on behalf of Hezbollah), have been committing to implement their country’s part, in exchange for an immediate ceasefire. That is, to guarantee that there is no Hezbollah presence or weapons south of the Litani River (the complete opposite of what has been happening) and to deploy 15,000 soldiers there to help ensure it. The full implementation of the resolution would force, for its part, Israel to put an end to its daily violations of Lebanese airspace for years (and now also land space, with the invasion that began three weeks ago) and to negotiate the pending disputes over the border.
For Benjamin Netanyahu’s Executive, however, compliance with resolution 1701 would no longer be enough, spurred by his succession of blows to Hezbollah (“Beirut is on fire,” his Foreign Minister boasted this Monday on the social network , Israel Katz, with the photo of the impact of a bomb on a building in the city); determined to change the regional equation with Iran, Hezbollah’s patron; and frustrated after seeing for years how the party-militia was reinforced in the face of the inaction of the Lebanese army and the inability of the UN mission. Now it has two demands that openly contradict the resolution, according to the document that Ron Dermer, Netanyahu’s right-hand man, transferred last Thursday to Washington and reported by the American media. Axios. One is to grant the Israeli military the power to participate in the “active implementation” of 1701, to ensure that Hezbollah does not rearm or regroup near the border between the two countries. The other, having freedom of action in Lebanese airspace.
This Monday, after holding a “very constructive” meeting in Beirut with Berry, the US envoy insisted that he has not come to “change” the current UN resolution, because “it is what it is”, but to propose what It can be “added” to guarantee its “fair, precise and transparent” implementation. “1701 managed to end the war (of 2006), but we have to be honest: no one has done anything to put it into practice. The lack of implementation during these years has contributed to the conflict we are in today. That must change, because both parties simply committing to 1701 is not enough,” he assured.
“Definitive solution”
The objective, he added, is to “end this conflict as soon as possible” and “find a definitive solution” because the countries that support the reconstruction, after the war, and the strengthening of the Lebanese Armed Forces (which, he said, would be a “fundamental piece” in the post-war) need the certainty that “this is not going to lead to another round of conflict in a month, a year or two years.” Hochstein has also positioned himself against Hezbollah’s position of linking a ceasefire in Lebanon to one in Gaza, which it is trying to revive in parallel. after the death of Hamas leader Yahia SinwarUS Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on the regional tour that begins this Monday in Israel. “Linking the future of Lebanon to other conflicts in the region” is not in the interest of the Lebanese, he noted.
Berry is the “older brother,” as Hezbollah’s number two, Naim Qasem, called him in his speech, revealing that he is representing his positions in the dialogue, despite belonging to another Shiite formation, Amal. This Monday he clung to the full application of the resolution, on both sides. “Our position is resolution 1701. Nothing has changed and the enemy cannot force us to accept by force of arms,” he declared. Prime Minister Mikati has also defined 1701 as irreplaceable, but has opened the door to “new agreements” to put it into practice.
In this context, Israel has normalized the attacks on the UN mission in Lebanon (Unifil)made up of soldiers from fifty countries and whose mandate is renewed every year by the United Nations Security Council. This Sunday, the mission reported that an Israeli army bulldozer “deliberately demolished” an observation tower and the perimeter fence of one of its positions, in Marwahin, southern Lebanon. The statement uses the formula “once again” on two occasions to remember that the attacks against positions of the blue helmets in the country they represent a “flagrant violation of international law and resolution 1701.”
