In Baabda, Lebanon, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam Warns Hezbollah Against Another War

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met President Joseph Aoun at the Baabda Presidential Palace and warned against dragging Lebanon into “another reckless adventure” in the service of outside interests. Salam told reporters that “the decision of war and peace is the exclusive domain of the state and its constitutional institutions.” He said Lebanon’s people, especially those in the south, have paid “a heavy price” in lives, livelihoods, homes and displacement. He also condemned “Lebanese individuals or groups in the internal affairs of Arab countries,” after Yemen’s interior minister, Ibrahim Ali Haidan, said seven Hezbollah members were among 21 foreign military experts working alongside the pro-Iranian Houthis in Yemen.

According to the reporting, Iran-backed Hezbollah twice pulled Lebanon into a war with Israel in as many years. The reporting said Israel launched a major military campaign in Lebanon after Hezbollah attacks in March, and that the campaign killed more than 4,300 people. Hezbollah denied involvement in managing Houthi military operations or in developing the group’s military, weapons and training capabilities. It said the accusations were “entirely baseless” and unsupported by facts.

Israel said it had pressed Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah from joining a renewed war with Iran, and that it had asked the Lebanese government to deploy troops to set up roadblocks in areas where Hezbollah operatives live. According to the report, Jerusalem warned Beirut through US mediators that “fighting will flare up again if Hezbollah attacks Israel,” and the US mediators relayed the request. Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun said last week that several key issues remain unsolved. He said the Lebanese state and army were prepared to address security concerns through “official mechanisms and established coordination channels” rather than military action.

The reporting said Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the Israel-US war with Iran on March 2. It described massive Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon before an agreement to end the conflict was reached in June. The Times of Israel reported that negotiations had been hampered by Hezbollah’s refusal to comply with a deal calling for the Israeli military, the IDF, to withdraw from areas of south Lebanon it held, in parallel with the deployment of the Lebanese army, starting with so-called pilot zones.

Israeli strikes have not stopped in south Lebanon, according to the report. Overnight artillery shelling hit Baraashit, al-Mansouri, Wadi Zebqine, al-Qantara and the outskirts of Zawtar al-Sharqiyeh. Israeli forces continued demolishing villages they occupy and burned homes in Hadatha, while the National News Agency reported that stun grenades were thrown at farmers in Halta, near Kfarshouba. Separately, the Alma Research and Education Center described tensions between Hezbollah and Amal in Hallousiyah, in the Tyre district, where Amal representatives threatened to resign after a dispute over naming the village’s main street. Peace in such a community depends on patient reconciliation between neighbors (Romans 12:18).

The report said Hezbollah representatives insisted on commemorating Nasrallah alone, while Amal representatives proposed naming the street jointly after Musa al-Sadr and Hassan Nasrallah. It said Amal representatives opposed putting the matter to a vote. Alma Research and Education Center added that in January 2021, five Amal-affiliated council members boycotted council meetings for more than three months. The boycott included a dispute over the placement of Hezbollah’s Islamic Health Organization emblem on an ambulance registered as council property.

Source: Read the original report