The ceremony marking the transfer of authority between General Guillaume Ponchin and General Valentin Seiler as representative to the cease-fire monitoring committee on June 26, 2025, in Beirut. (Credit: @MissionDefLiban/X)
BEIRUT — A new French general has replaced General Guillaume Ponchin as France's representative in the five-member cease-fire monitoring committee established as part of the November truce to oversee its implementation.
General Valentin Seiler is now part of this group, following a ceremony inaugurating his position at the French embassy in Beirut on Thursday, attended by the French ambassador and several generals within the Lebanese Army, according to a statement from the French embassy on X.
The committee is made up of representatives from Lebanon, Israel, the U.S. (which acts as chair), France and UNIFIL and was mandated to ensure the cease-fire, which Israel violates on a daily basis in attacking what it perceives as threats to its security.
The committee also oversees the dismantling of Hezbollah's military infrastructure south of the Litani River, and the Lebanese Army's expanded deployment in the area.
The mechanism is a sort of reproduction of the 1996 trilateral agreement, established following Israel's Operation "Grapes of Wrath," which was brought to an end by the "April Accords."
The appointment of a new French general was not the only change within the committee, whose role within the ongoing Israeli aggression and occupation of Lebanese territory seems murky at best. On April 30, American General Jasper Jeffers, who had led the committee since its creation with the cease-fire on Nov. 27, 2024, handed the reins over to General Michael Leeney.
Similarly, at the beginning of May, senior officer Nicolas Tabet replaced Brigadier General Edgar Lawandos, the commander of the southern Litani sector, to represent Lebanon within the oversight committee, following General Lawandos's promotion to the rank of major general heading State Security.
At the time the cease-fire was agreed upon between Israel and Hezbollah (via Lebanese authorities), a letter was leaked to the press that showed a parallel agreement had been signed between Israel and the U.S., the head of the cease-fire monitoring committee, that established an understanding between the two parties that the U.S. “recognizes Israel's right to respond to Hezbollah threats.”
The Lebanese Army threatened to "suspend" its coordination with the oversight committee, denouncing at the beginning of June Israel's "intensified aggressions" against Lebanon, through its regular strikes on various regions, the occupation of Lebanese territories, or its "daily violations" of Lebanon's sovereignty, "without taking into account the mechanism for cessation of hostilities or the efforts of the cease-fire monitoring committee."
