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Lebanon army to deploy in south Thursday

Top Lebanese government official says Lebanese cabinet approved plan to deploy Lebanese army south of Litani River starting Thursday. Twice-delayed meeting approves sending army to the south of country, where it will slowly take over territory from which Israeli forces have begun to withdraw

The Lebanese cabinet on Wednesday approved a plan to deploy the Lebanese army south of the Litani River starting Thursday, a key demand of a UN-imposed ceasefire which halted 34 days of fighting between Israel and Hizbullah.

 

The government apparently skirted another key demand of the United Nations, the disarmament of Hizbullah.

 

"It was approved," Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat told reporters of the army deployment as the meeting broke up.

 

The twice-delayed meeting approved sending the army to the south of the country where it will slowly take over territory from which Israeli forces have begun to withdraw.

 

A top official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak before a formal announcement was made, said the army deployment would start on Thursday.

 

In the strongest indication yet that the guerrillas would not disarm in the region or withdraw, but rather melt into the local population and hide their weapons, Hizbullah's top official in south Lebanon said the guerrillas welcomed the Lebanese army's additional deployment in the south.

 

"Just like in the past, Hizbullah had no visible military presence and there will not be any visible presence now," Sheik Nabil Kaouk told reporters in Tyre on Wednesday.

 

The cabinet, which includes two Hizbullah ministers, has not met since the ceasefire went into effect on Sunday, owing to divisions among political factions over the army deployment and Hizbullah's arms, which includes rocket launchers and positions that have survived the Israeli

onslaught.


Lebanese army prepares to head south (Photo: AP)

 

The Lebanese army has been preparing troops for the past few days for the deployment. The cabinet approved the requirement of the UN ceasefire resolution requirement that the army sends 15,000 soldiers to the south to be joined by an equal number of U.N. Peacekeepers to patrol the region between the Israeli border and the Litani River, 30 kilometers (18 miles) to the north.

 

It would mark the first time Lebanon's national army moved in force to a region that was held by Palestinian guerrillas in the 1970s and by Hizbullah since Israel's troop withdrawal from the area in 2000.

 

Peres: If Lebanese army doesn't go south – it lost

 

Israel was quick to respond to Hizbullah's statement according, to which the organization won't withdraw its members from beyond the Litani River and won't disarm, regardless of the arrival of the Lebanese army.

 

"There is a problem here for the UN secretary general and the members of the Security Council," a senior diplomatic source said in Jerusalem.

 

"Both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said after the decision that Israel has one address: The Lebanese government. If the Lebanese government doesn't succeed in applying Resolution 1701, the UN Security Council will have to deal with it," the source said.

 

Vice Premier Shimon Peres said that if Hizbullah refuses to agree to a ceasefire, the issue will be transferred to the UN Security Council. Peres, who was in Washington in meetings with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, stressed that Hizbullah is not only an Israeli problem, but an internal Lebanese problem.

 

"Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Siniora understands that from his perspective, it's to be or not to be," said Peres.

 

"If the Lebanese army doesn't go down to the south of the country – it lost the war," he said.

 

Peres added that since south Lebanon was a relatively small area, 30,000 Lebanese soldiers backed up by a multi-national force would be enough to neutralize Hizbullah.

 

Roee Nahmias and Yitzhak Benhorin contributed to the report

 


פרסום ראשון: 08.16.06, 19:39
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