Hezbollah chief demands full timetable of Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon

• Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on June 23 demanded a scheduled withdrawal of Israeli troops from south Lebanon as the authorities said Israeli gunfire killed two people there despite a recent lull in fighting.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun rejected Israel’s occupation of the south and foreign interference in his country’s affairs – an allusion to Hezbollah’s backer Iran – as a fifth round of Israel-Lebanon talks began in Washington.

On June 22, mediators Pakistan and Qatar said that Tehran and Washington had agreed to set up a “de-confliction cell” to limit flare-ups in Lebanon following talks in Switzerland on ending the wider Middle East war, which Tehran has linked to halting the parallel conflict in Lebanon.

“We now have a ceasefire. The withdrawal must take place according to a timetable. Israel has no choice but to fully withdraw from all Lebanese territory, without retaining an inch,” Qassem said, in a televised address.

Deadly clashes between Israel and Hezbollah on June 19 and June 20 had rattled the fledgling US-Iran deal, which provides for a cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon.

The fighting in Lebanon has largely paused since the evening of June 20.

“Israel withdraws and the Lebanese army deploys exclusively south of the Litani River,” Qassem said, referring to a waterway around 30km from the Israeli border.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said two men were killed on June 23 when Israeli soldiers opened fire with machine guns “while they were standing near an excavator that was unblocking a road” in Nabatieh al-Fawqa.

The Health Ministry later confirmed the toll.

Hezbollah slammed it as a “blatant” Israeli truce violation and a “treacherous attack”.

Israel’s military said soldiers fired warning shots at four alleged Hezbollah militants on a bulldozer and a motorcycle who entered an Israeli-declared “security zone” running around 10km deep inside Lebanon, before “additional fire was conducted in order to remove the threat”.

Separately, it said its forces also struck “a cell of armed terrorists operating” near soldiers in the zone.

The NNA also reported that “an enemy drone targeted a parked car” on the outskirts of the town of Baraasheet, while another drone targeted a car elsewhere in south Lebanon “without hitting the vehicle”.

The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, had said earlier on June 23 that it had not observed any launches, strikes or interceptions “since Sunday, marking more than two days without such activity”.

Under US pressure, Lebanese officials began direct talks in April with Israel in Washington, with the Lebanese authorities seeking to separate the negotiations from the US-Iran deal.

“We accept nothing less than an end to the Israeli occupation and at the same time, the fall of foreign tutelage,” Aoun said, according to his office.

The Lebanese President has previously accused Iran of using his country as a “bargaining chip”.

Aoun said the talks in Washington “aim to lay solid ground for a clear programme that leads to the full realisation of Lebanon’s demands, which would pave the way for achieving a real and lasting peace”, according to his office.

He also expressed hope that the current round would be “decisive” in helping obtain “the full restoration of Lebanon’s sovereignty”.

Aoun’s office also said he spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron by telephone, discussing the situation “in light of the results of the US-Iran negotiations”.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who acts as an intermediary for the group, also spoke to Macron, his office said, emphasising “the importance of consolidating the ceasefire” and Israel’s withdrawal.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2 with rocket fire at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Israel responded with air strikes and a ground offensive that Lebanon says have killed more than 4,100 people.

On June 22, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces in Lebanon retained “full freedom of action to thwart any direct or developing threat”. AFP