Lebanon will accept “nothing less” than Israeli military withdrawal, president says

Lebanon’s president said Tuesday that his government would accept “nothing less” than the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the south of his country, where they have occupied a roughly six-mile deep swath of land extending from the two nations’ shared border.

“We affirm that we will accept nothing less than the end of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and the elimination of all forms of external tutelage,” President Joseph Aoun said ahead of talks in Washington with Israeli officials.

Israeli leaders say forces will remain in the “security zone” across southern Lebanon until the threat posed by the Iran-backed Hezbollah group is eliminated.

The memorandum of understanding signed last week by the U.S. and Iran calls for a “permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”

“We are entering a new round of negotiations that we hope will be decisive in achieving what we seek for our country and our people,” Aoun said. “We see that objective in the full restoration of Lebanon’s sovereignty over every inch of its territory and the extension of state authority across all Lebanese land.”

Aoun’s government has been under intense pressure by Israel and the U.S. to disarm Hezbollah, which, while designated a terrorist group by both of those countries, has long been a powerful political and paramilitary force in Lebanon, in addition to being Iran’s most powerful regional proxy.