Lebanon must remove Hezbollah threat from south: German minister

Germany's foreign minister on Tuesday urged Lebanese authorities to confront Hezbollah and reassert state control over the country's south, where the militant group has been engaged in hostilities with Israeli forces.

During a visit to Jerusalem, Johann Wadephul, who backed Israel's ground invasion of southern Lebanon earlier this year, also praised the U.S.-brokered agreement between Israel and Lebanon, pledging Germany's support for what he described as a "historic" initiative.

"What is crucial is that Lebanon now needs determination on its side, to assert itself and ensure that Hezbollah no longer actually exercises control in southern Lebanon," Wadephul said at a joint press conference with his Israeli counterpart.

Lebanon must "in particular ensure that no danger whatsoever to Israel emanates from Lebanese territory," he said.

Hezbollah dragged Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2, when it fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei in joint US-Israeli airstrikes.

Israel has since carried out a massive campaign of strikes and a ground invasion in southern Lebanon that have killed more than 4,300 people in Lebanon, while occupying a large swathe of the country's south.

The Israeli military has also reported deaths of 38 soldiers in the campaign and a civilian contractor.

Wadephul welcomed the ongoing U.S.-mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon, which are due to resume in Rome next week, and pledged European and German support for the dialogue.

"The agreement reached between Israel and Lebanon is a glimmer of hope for people on both sides of the border, who are jointly suffering under Hezbollah's terror," he said.

"It has so far been underestimated what a historic step it is that Israel and Lebanon are now conducting these negotiations with each other.

"I believe that if this path can be supported by Europeans, then Israel and Lebanon can count on German support there at any time," he added.

Wadephul also touched upon the situation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

"In the West Bank, Palestinians need a perspective for a political and economic future," he said.

He urged Israel to release tax and customs revenues it has been withholding from the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority to prevent its collapse.

"The PA is not perfect. It urgently needs to be reformed. But weakening the PA does not serve Israel's security; rather, it can create a vacuum that other, more radical forces could fill," he said.

Wadephul warned that Israel's continued settlement expansion was undermining prospects for peace.

"That is why we view continued settlement construction with great concern," he said.

"A de facto annexation of parts of the West Bank cannot be accepted internationally, and Germany cannot see how it would be legal."

Tuesday's meeting between the two diplomats was the ninth such encounter over the past year, and it saw the signing of an agreement under which Germany will provide annual financial support of 5 million euros by 2030 to Jerusalem's Yad Vashem centre for Holocaust research, documentation, education, and remembrance.