Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib and French ambassador Herve Magro, March 15, 2024. (Credit: NNA)
Lebanon on Friday insisted on the "full implementation" of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel as a response to the French initiative proposed last month to solve the ongoing fighting on the Lebanese-Israeli border.
Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging near-daily cross-border fire following Hamas's Oct. 7 operation against Israel. Hezbollah consistently states that a pre-requisite to the stopping of their attacks against Israel is a cease-fire in Gaza.
The French proposed a three-step plan for de-escalation which aims to achieve “a potential cease-fire, to ensure the implementation of Resolution 1701 (2006)." The proposal also aims to relaunch, in a later phase, negotiations on the delimitation of the land border between the two countries. It is inspired by the April 1996 agreement and plans, in parallel with these arrangements, to create a supervisory commission made up of the United States, France, Lebanon and Israel.
According to the Lebanese National News Agency, caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib handed the Lebanese response to the French ambassador in Lebanon Herve Magro, during a meeting earlier on Friday.
The foreign minister underlined that the French initiative is "an important step to reach peace and security in south Lebanon" and that "Lebanon does not want a war but calls for the full and comprehensive implementation to UN resolution of 1701."
Resolution 1701 calls for the full cessation of hostilities, the deployment of Lebanese Armed Forces to southern Lebanon, parallel to the withdrawal of Israeli forces behind the Blue Line, strengthening the UN force (UNIFIL) to facilitate the entry of the army into the region and the establishment of a demilitarized zone between the Blue Line and the Litani River, where Hezbollah operates.
Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace and land have continued even after 1701 and some portions of the Lebanese territories in the south are, according to many Lebanese politicians and political leaders, still occupied by Israel.