Calls to reconsider Resolution 2790 and retain UNIFIL... Aoun: State is determined to support the resilience and steadfastness of Southerners

Beirut – Mansour Shaaban

The eyes of Lebanon are on its south, where war, burning, displacement, and forced migration persist under the relentless fire of Israeli fighter jets that spare no area, from Kfar Kila to Wadi al-Hujayr, Mansouri, Haddath, B’erashit, Majdal Zoun, Houla, Sidon, Bint Jbeil, and others.

What most preoccupies Lebanese is the issue of the international forces operating in the south, UNIFIL. Officials are seeking to renew its mandate or form a force under a different name to replace it in two months.

For this reason, MPs Melhem Khalaf, Firas Hamdan, Michel Mousa, Najah Omran, Paula Yacoubian, Adnan al-Turabi, and Ibrahim Manmana held a press conference at the Parliament, calling for a review of Resolution 2790 and for retaining UNIFIL.

Speaking on behalf of the seven MPs, Khalaf said: “Our demand is clear: retain UNIFIL and enhance its effectiveness, enable the Lebanese Army to deploy and assume its responsibilities, and prevent leaving the south facing a security and humanitarian vacuum whose cost to address would be far greater than the cost of preventing it.”

He added: “The vacuum in the south will not remain empty. The absence of international monitoring, while Israeli occupation continues, increases the risks of entrenching this occupation and expanding its control.”

He further stated: “The absence of UNIFIL from sensitive areas may facilitate the imposition of new facts on the ground: isolating villages from their Lebanese surroundings, restricting access to them, expanding Israeli military control, and cementing a long-term occupation. These developments could pave the way for attempts at de facto annexation or the imposition of arrangements that undermine the territorial integrity of Lebanon.”

Khalaf said: “Our message to the international community is clear: do not leave the south to its fate. Do not allow the withdrawal of UNIFIL to become an opening for entrenching the occupation or for creating conditions that hinder the state’s authority and its monopoly on weapons.”

For his part, President of the Republic General Joseph Aoun followed developments in the south, and received from the mayor of Jaj, Muhammad Muheidli, an update on the town’s situation, the needs of its residents, and the damage inflicted by Israeli attacks, reaffirming “the state’s determination to support the resilience and steadfastness of southerners on their land.”

Meanwhile, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Dr. Nawaf Salam discussed various developments and political and field updates, as well as the outcomes of Prime Minister Salam’s visits to the United States and to the city of Nabatiyeh, and the projects launched, at the Second Presidential Headquarters in Ain al-Tineh.

In the north, Grand Mufti of Lebanon Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian visited the Mufti of Tripoli and the North, Sheikh Muhammad Tarek, in the presence of city clerics and MPs, who addressed him: “It is absolutely unacceptable in any way that the second capital should become a dumping ground for waste.”

He continued: “My message to the stakeholders and authorities in Tripoli is to unite in vision and in action for the sake of Tripoli. This unity exists and requires greater attention. I will not prolong my remarks, as I have committed to myself not to speak about politics today.”