Lebanon’s president stresses urgent need for Israeli withdrawal from south under truce deal

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres meets with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the presidential palace, in Baabda, Lebanon January 18, 2025. (REUTERS)
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Updated 18 January 2025
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Lebanon’s president stresses urgent need for Israeli withdrawal from south under truce deal

  • Lebanese leaders ask UN chief to help repatriate Syrian refugees as he pledges international support
  • The ceasefire requires Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon within 60 days

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun stressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday the urgency of an Israeli military withdrawal as stipulated by a ceasefire deal that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war in November.

President Aoun told the visiting UN chief that it was necessary for “Israeli forces to withdraw from occupied territories in the south within the deadline set by the agreement reached on Nov. 27.”

Aoun also highlighted “the readiness of the Lebanese army to replace the Israelis once they withdraw” from the Lebanese border area, which was invaded on Oct. 1.

“Israel’s continued violations on land and in the air ... blowing up homes and destroying border villages, completely contradicts what was stated in the ceasefire agreement,” a statement from Aoun’s office added.

Aoun said that the Israeli breaches were “a continued violation of the Lebanese sovereignty and the international community’s will to restore stability in southern Lebanon.”

Guterres inspected the Blue Line and met UN peacekeepers carrying out their operations south of the Litani River.

On his second day in Lebanon on Saturday, he conveyed to Lebanese officials the UN’s “continued commitment to support the Lebanese army and the Lebanese institutions, as well as President Aoun in his tenure.”

Guterres said that he would “do everything possible to secure the withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the south within the specified period.”

According to the presidential palace’s media office, Guterres said: “I am confident that under your leadership, things will go back to normal in Lebanon, and the country will regain its strength and stability in the region.”

He added: “It is true that your mission is not easy, but a solid will can achieve what we’re aiming for.”

Guterres reiterated “the support of the UN and all its institutions for Lebanon.”

He said: “We have the will to mobilize to secure the international community’s support so Lebanon can rise again and recover from the repercussions of the last years.”

According to the president’s media office, Aoun “tackled Israel’s burning of cultivated lands in southern Lebanon.”

He called on “the UN, namely the Food and Agriculture Organization, to help farmers restore their lands and make them investment-ready.”

Aoun also urged the UN to “help secure the return of the Syrian refugees to their country since the political and security reasons for their asylum are no longer valid.”

Following the meeting, Guterres said: “It was an opportunity to express our solidarity with the people of Lebanon who have suffered so much and our total support to the president and the future government.”

He added: “Now, it will be possible to consolidate the Lebanese institutions, and it will be possible to create the conditions for the Lebanese state to protect its citizens fully.

“With the withdrawal of the Israeli forces and with the presence of the Lebanese army in the whole of the Lebanese territory, it will also be possible to open a new chapter of peace.”
 
Guterres said: “I know that the Lebanese are dynamic, resilient and courageous.

“And I know that reconstruction begins as soon as a conflict ends.

“I want to express our total support and our will to fully mobilize the international community to provide Lebanon with all the support for what we believe will be a speedy recovery of this country, making it again the center of the Middle East.”

Guterres visited Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam at his residence.

After the meeting, Guterres reiterated the UN’s “full support for the ongoing process in Lebanon, where the country has witnessed the election of a new president and a new prime minister tasked with forming a government.

“New opportunities are emerging for Lebanon with the completion of the ceasefire agreement, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the Lebanese armed forces assuming full responsibilities entrusted to them,” he said.

“We are convinced this development will represent an extraordinary qualitative leap for Lebanon.

“The UN fully supports the president and the Lebanese government in mobilizing the international community to provide comprehensive support for Lebanon, which must regain its status as a pivotal center in the Middle East.”

Salam said that he relied on the secretary-general “to mobilize diplomatic support to ensure the Israelis’ withdrawal on the scheduled day and to rally efforts for the reconstruction conference mentioned by French President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Lebanon on Friday, which will be held soon.”

Salam added: “With the changing situation in Syria, we need to begin preparations with the UN for the safe and dignified return of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.”

The UN chief also met Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

He confirmed the UN’s support for Lebanon. He said that the government would “soon be formed, representing all Lebanese parties, and the Israeli army must withdraw after the set deadline.”

Berri’s media office reported that he highlighted “the necessity for Israel to adhere to its withdrawal from Lebanese territories that it still occupies, under the terms of the agreement, and to halt its violations and systematic destruction of villages, fields, agricultural lands, and forests.”
 
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued their violations in the south through incursions and bulldozing operations in the Marjeyoun plain and the towns of Yaroun and Mays Al-Jabal, as well as extensive operations in Wadi Saluki and the storming of homes west of the town of Houla.

The Red Cross and the Lebanese army have not yet been able to search for three people targeted by an Israeli drone three days ago in the Jabal Sadana area, pending the results of UNIFIL’s communications with the Israeli side.

The UN chief emphasized to the UNIFIL forces during a meeting in Naqoura on Friday the importance of “enabling them to resume patrols and monitoring tasks,” stressing that “adapting operational methods is crucial for restoring freedom of movement and access throughout the UNIFIL operational area.”

 


US deputy Mideast envoy says Hezbollah must not be part of Lebanon government

Updated 8 sec ago
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US deputy Mideast envoy says Hezbollah must not be part of Lebanon government

Beirut: The US deputy special envoy for the Middle East Friday said that Hezbollah’s presence in Lebanon’s new government was a red line, welcoming the end of the Iran-backed group’s “reign of terror.”
“We have set clear red lines in the United States that they (Hezbollah) won’t be able to terrorize the Lebanese people, and that includes by being a part of the government,” Morgan Ortagus said after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Beirut, adding: “the end of Hezbollah’s reign of terror in Lebanon and around the world has started and it’s over.”

Al-Qaeda in Yemen says senior official killed in blast

Updated 59 min 30 sec ago
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Al-Qaeda in Yemen says senior official killed in blast

  • Abu Yusuf Al-Muhammadi Al-Hadrami died when a motorcycle packed with explosives detonated near where he worked in Marib

Dubai: A senior member of Al-Qaeda in Yemen has been killed in a bomb blast, according to a statement from the extremist group behind a string of high-profile attacks.
Abu Yusuf Al-Muhammadi Al-Hadrami died when a motorcycle packed with explosives detonated near where he worked in Marib, east of the rebel-held capital Sanaa.
Washington regards the group, known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as most dangerous branch of group
Born in 2009, AQAP grew and developed in the chaos of Yemen’s war.
It has been responsible for multiple attacks, including the deadly 2000 bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Aden, which killed 17 US military personnel.
In 2015, AQAP claimed that two French gunmen who massacred 12 people in an attack on the Paris offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine were acting on its behalf.


US aid freeze worsening Syria camp conditions: HRW

Updated 07 February 2025
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US aid freeze worsening Syria camp conditions: HRW

  • On January 24, four days after US President Donald Trump returned to power, NGOs linked to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) received a letter asking them to cease all activities

Beirut: Human Rights Watch warned Friday that US aid suspensions could worsen “life-threatening conditions” in camps holding relatives of suspected Daesh terrorists in northeast Syria, urging Washington to maintain support.
Kurdish-run camps and prisons in the region still hold around 56,000 people with alleged or perceived links to the Daesh group, years after the jihadists’ territorial defeat.
They include jihadist suspects locked up in prisons, as well as the wives and children of IS fighters held in the Al-Hol and Roj internment camps.
“The US government’s suspension of foreign aid to non-governmental organizations operating in these camps is exacerbating life-threatening conditions, risking further destabilization of a precarious security situation,” HRW said in a statement.
The rights group said the aid freeze could “limit provision of essential services for camp residents,” citing international humanitarian workers.
On January 24, four days after US President Donald Trump returned to power, NGOs linked to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) received a first letter asking them to cease all activities funded by the agency.
A week later, another letter, seen by AFP, authorized them to resume certain missions intended for “life-saving humanitarian assistance.”
The orders have left aid groups in the northeast “unsure how to proceed with deliveries of essential goods, like kerosene and water, further exacerbating pre-existing shortages,” the statement said.
“Secretary of State Marco Rubio should continue US assistance to organizations providing essential lifesaving assistance in northeast Syria,” the group said.
Following the January 24 order, HRW said Blumont, an organization responsible for camp management in Al Hol and Roj, suspended activities and withdrew all staff, including guards.
A few days later, the group received a two-week exemption allowing it to work.
Al-Hol is northeast Syria’s largest internment camp, with more than 40,000 detainees from 47 countries.
The vast majority of Al-Hol and Roj residents are women and children living in dire conditions.
HRW also said that “any political settlement in the region should include ending the arbitrary detention of those with alleged Daesh ties and their families.”
“Thousands of lives, many of them children, are hanging in the balance, and the indefensible status quo of the last six years should not be allowed to continue,” said Hiba Zayadin of Human Rights Watch.
The call comes amid talks between Syria’s new authorities and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) over the group’s future and as clashes rage in the north between the Kurdish-led group and Turkish-backed factions.


Doubling down on his proposal, Trump says Israel would hand over Gaza to the US after fighting is over

Updated 07 February 2025
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Doubling down on his proposal, Trump says Israel would hand over Gaza to the US after fighting is over

  • Trump has said he aims to take over and develop the Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East”
  • Proposal comes just as Israel and Hamas expected to begin talks on second stage of ceasefire deal 

JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday Israel would hand over Gaza to the United States after fighting was over and the enclave’s population was already resettled elsewhere, which he said meant no US troops would be needed on the ground.
A day after worldwide condemnation of Trump’s announcement that he aimed to take over and develop the Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” Israel ordered its army to prepare to allow the “voluntary departure” of Gaza Palestinians.
Trump, who had previously declined to rule out deploying US troops to the small coastal territory, clarified his idea in comments on his Truth Social web platform.
“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” he said. Palestinians “would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.” He added: “No soldiers by the US would be needed!“
Earlier, amid a tide of support in Israel for what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump’s “remarkable” proposal, Defense Minister Israel Katz said he had ordered the army to prepare a plan to allow Gaza residents who wished to leave to exit the enclave voluntarily.
“I welcome President Trump’s bold plan. Gaza residents should be allowed the freedom to leave and emigrate, as is the norm around the world,” Katz said on X.
He said his plan would include exit options via land crossings, as well as special arrangements for departure by sea and air.
Trump, a real-estate-developer-turned-politician, sparked anger around the Middle East with his unexpected announcement on Tuesday, just as Israel and Hamas were expected to begin talks in Doha on the second stage of a ceasefire deal for Gaza, intended to open the way for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, a further release of hostages and an end to a nearly 16-month-old war.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia rebuffed the proposal outright and Jordan’s King Abdullah, who will meet Trump at the White House next week, said on Wednesday he rejected any attempts to annex land and displace Palestinians.
Egypt also weighed in, saying it would not be part of any proposal to displace Palestinians from neighboring Gaza, where residents reacted with fury to the suggestion.
“We will not sell our land for you, real estate developer. We are hungry, homeless, and desperate but we are not collaborators,” said Abdel Ghani, a father of four living with his family in the ruins of their Gaza City home. “If (Trump) wants to help, let him come and rebuild for us here.”
It was unclear whether Trump would go ahead with his proposal or, in keeping with his self-image as a shrewd dealmaker, has simply laid out an extreme position as a bargaining tactic. His first term in 2017-21 was replete with what critics said were over-the-top foreign policy pronouncements, many of which were never implemented.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Thursday that people would have to live elsewhere while Gaza was rebuilt. He did not say whether they would be able to return under Trump’s plan to develop the enclave, home to more than 2 million Palestinians.
Axios reported Rubio planned to visit the Middle East in mid-February with an itinerary that includes Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Displacement
What effect Trump’s shock proposal may have on the ceasefire talks remains unclear. Only 13 of a group of 33 Israeli hostages due for release in the first phase have so far been returned, with three more due to come out on Saturday. Five Thai hostages have also been released.
Hamas official Basem Naim accused Israel’s defense minister of trying to cover up “for a state that has failed to achieve any of its objectives in the war on Gaza,” and said Palestinians are too attached to their land to ever leave.
Displacement of Palestinians has been one of the most sensitive issues in the Middle East for decades. Forced or coerced displacement of a population under military occupation is a war crime, banned under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

Details of how any such plan might work have been vague. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said different thinking was needed on Gaza’s future but that any departures would have to be voluntary and states would have to be willing to take them.
“We don’t have details yet, but we can talk about principles,” Saar told a press conference with his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani. “Everything must be based on the free will of (the) individual and, on the other hand, of a will of a state that is ready to absorb,” he said.
A number of far-right Israeli politicians have openly called for Palestinians to be moved from Gaza and there was strong support for Trump’s push among both security hawks and the Jewish settler movement, which wants to reclaim land in Gaza used for Jewish settlements until 2005.
Giora Eiland, an Israeli former general who attracted wide attention in an earlier stage of the war with his “Generals’ Plan” for a forced displacement of people from northern Gaza, said Trump’s plan was logical and aid should not be allowed to reach displaced people returning to northern Gaza.
Israel’s military campaign has killed tens of thousands of people since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, cross-border attack on Israel touched off the war, and has forced Palestinians to repeatedly move around within Gaza in search of safety.
But many say they will never leave the enclave because they fear permanent displacement, like the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands were dispossessed from homes in the war at the birth of the state of Israel in 1948.
Katz said countries that have opposed Israel’s military operations in Gaza should take in the Palestinians.
“Countries like Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others, which have levelled accusations and false claims against Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow any Gaza resident to enter their territories,” he said.


Bodies of migrants recovered in two locations in Libya, security and Red Crescent say

Updated 07 February 2025
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Bodies of migrants recovered in two locations in Libya, security and Red Crescent say

  • 19 bodies — believed to be related to smuggling activites — were discovered in a mass grave in a farm some 441 km from Benghazi, say police
  • Libya's Red Crescent said the bodies of 10 other migrants were recovered after their boat sank off Dila port in the city of Zawiya, near Tripoli

BENGHAZI, Libya: At least 29 bodies of migrants have been recovered in two locations in the southeast and west of Libya, a security directorate and the Libyan Red Crescent said on Thursday.
The Alwahat district Security Directorate said in a statement that 19 bodies were discovered in a mass grave in a farm in Jikharra area, some 441 km from Benghazi, Libya's second largest city, and said the deaths were related to smuggling activites.
The directorate posted on Facebook pictures showing police officers and Jalu Red Crescent volunteers placing the bodies in black plastic bags.
Separately, the Libyan Red Crescent said on Facebook late Thursday evening that its volunteers recovered the bodies of 10 migrants earlier in the day after their boat sank off Dila port in the city of Zawiya, some 40 km from Tripoli, the capital.
The Red Crescent posted pictures showing volunteers on the dockside placing bodies in white plastic bags, while one volunteer put numbers on one of the bags.
"In the presence of the Public Prosecution Office in Jalu, the directorate was able to recover 19 bodies resulting from smuggling and illegal migration activities in Jikharra area, belonging to a known smuggling network," the directorate said.
It said the bodies were found in a total of three graves on the farm, with one grave holding one body, a second grave holding four bodies, and the remaining 14 bodies found in the third grave.
"The bodies were all referred to a forensic doctor to conduct the necessary tests," the directorate said.
Libya has turned into a transit route for migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to Europe across the Mediterranean.
At the end of January, Alwahat Criminal Investigation Department said it had freed 263 migrants from different Sub-Saharan nationalities, saying they were "being held by a smuggling gang in extremely poor human and health conditions."