Bou Habib says 'Israel would not launch a ground offensive in the South'

In a televised interview with Télé-Liban, the official state-run channel, caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said that "Israel would not launch a ground offensive against Lebanon because it knows that such a conflict would not be a cakewalk." On the other hand, he expects "the war of attrition that Israel is waging with its drones to continue."

The current conflict in South Lebanon began on Oct. 8, 2023, following the outbreak of war in Gaza on Oct. 7, after the Hamas-led Flood of al Aqsa operation against Israel.

Bou Habib had already expressed this opinion in an interview with the Qatari channel al-Jazeera on March 1, when he said that Lebanon "wants peace" but is "prepared for war," adding that "the Israelis must withdraw from our territories." In his interview on Thursday, the Minister reiterated his rejection of "half-hearted solutions that exclude the issue of Israeli withdrawal from the Shebaa Farms and the Kfar Shouba Hills." He said he was in favor of "increasing the strength of the Lebanese army so that it can deploy effectively in the South."

The Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs also noted that "the American envoy Amos Hochstein does not like to deal with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." He took the opportunity to take a swipe at caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, whom he blames for "not having taken a stand against this omission by Hochstein," and whom he even accuses of "arrogating to himself the prerogatives of his ministry." More specifically, he points out that the prime minister "deliberately meets country representatives in private during his trips abroad, systematically asking Lebanon's ambassadors in the countries concerned to leave him alone with international personalities."

Bou Habib feels that his relationship with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is more fluid. "We have the same clear position on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701, unlike Mikati who fears war," he said. He was referring to the resolution passed in 2006 to put an end to the month-long conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, which decreed a cessation of violations on both sides, as well as a withdrawal of Hezbollah's armed groups north of the Litani River.