Hezbollah chief speaks of ‘high coordination’ with Lebanese Army to apply cease-fire

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An Israeli flag sits on a destroyed building (L) near a damaged water tank painted with the Lebanese flag amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in the southern Lebanese village of Meiss El-Jabal, as seen from the Israeli side of the border on Friday. Photo by Atef Safadi/EPA-EFE

BEIRUT, Lebanon , Nov. 29 (UPI) — Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said Friday that his Iran-backed militant group will coordinate with the Lebanese Army to implement the U.S. led cease-fire agreement that ended almost 14 months of devastating conflict with Israel.

Qassem said in a speech broadcast by Hezbollah-run Al Manar television station that Hezbollah faced “an unprecedented aggression” when Israel launched a wide-scale attack on Lebanon, starting with the Sept. 17 highly sophisticated pager explosions against Hezbollah members, the assassination of its long-time leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah and a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.

He praised the “historic steadfastness” of the Hezbollah fighters who battled the Israeli forces advancing in south Lebanon and fired rockets into Israel, including Tel Aviv, saying they scored “a big victory.”

“We won because we prevented the enemy from eliminating Hezbollah and the resistance,” Qassem said, adding that Israel “suffered very big losses,” with more Israelis displaced and soldiers killed or wounded.

That, he argued, made Israel reach “a dead end,” pushing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to justify his acceptance of the cease-fire and stopping the war without achieving his set goals “for he wanted to rebuild and rearm his army.”

The cease-fire agreement, which went into effect Wednesday at 4 a.m. local time, hours after U.S. President Joe Biden announced it, was the result of months of complicated negotiations to achieve a formula that allows a strict implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, backed by U.S. guarantees and an enforced-monitoring committee to deal with violations.

Both Israel and Hezbollah accepted it.

The truce still holds, despite few violations by Israeli forces that fired at Lebanese returning to their villages in south Lebanon, injuring at least two of them, and carrying two airstrikes against Hezbollah targets.

Qassem ignored the Israeli violations during his speech.

However, he emphasized that “a high coordination” will exist to implement the cease-fire agreement with the Lebanese Army, which “will deploy … and … Read More