The leader of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea. (Credit: Photo taken from X account)
BEIRUT — The leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF), Samir Geagea, on Monday called on Druze leader Walid Joumblatt to move beyond the armistice signed between Lebanon and Israel in 1949, at a time when the country has just signed a framework agreement with Israel at the end of June, under Washington's auspices.
"We cannot go back in history," said the LF leader, urging the former head of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) to "understand where we stand."
In a post on X, Geagea thanked Joumblatt for gifting him his recently published memoirs, with the following dedication: "Only the armistice agreement constitutes the foundation," referring to the agreement sealed on March 23, 1949 at Ras Naqoura, following the first Arab-Israeli war that broke out in May 1948 after the proclamation of the State of Israel by Zionist militias in Palestine.
The Israeli state suspended the implementation of the armistice in 1967, in the wake of the Six-Day War. Since the signing of a framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel on June 26, Joumblatt has regularly called for a return to the 1949 agreement, which established a demarcation line and set up a peacekeeping mechanism under the authority of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).
"It goes without saying that the armistice was a foundation between Lebanon and Israel. But unfortunately, we let it fall and be trampled on since 1964 [the period when Palestinian fighters began to settle in south Lebanon, editor's note] and to this day, it is as if the agreement no longer exists," said the LF chief. "We cannot go back and the days continue to pass. What matters today is to understand where we stand, instead of crying over ruins," he continued.
Hezbollah and the Israeli state resumed war on March 2, after a fragile 15-month truce. Within this context, Lebanon and Israel concluded an agreement on June 26 aimed at ending the war, even as Israel continues to occupy a “buffer zone” of more than 600 square kilometers in South Lebanon, extending up to ten kilometers deep. The text also calls for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from two “pilot zones” in south Lebanon. The agreement was welcomed by Hezbollah’s opponents but rejected by the party and its ally Amal.
