BEIRUT: Lebanon’s army gave several ambassadors and foreign military officials a tour on Monday meant to demonstrate its efforts to disarm Hezbollah, as Beirut contends with fears of expanded Israeli strikes and mounting diplomatic pressure to show results.
Lebanon has committed to disarming Iran-backed Hezbollah, and the army has set a goal of dismantling the group’s military infrastructure south of the Litani River — around 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Israel — by year’s end before tackling the rest of the country.
In a statement, the military said it “organized a field tour for a number of ambassadors, charges d’affaires, and military attaches to learn about the implementation of the first phase of the army’s plan in the south of the Litani sector.”
Army chief Rodolphe Haykal said the tour was intended to highlight the army’s commitment to the efforts in spite of its “limited capabilities.”
Israel and Hezbollah clashed for over a year after the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, and a November 2024 ceasefire was meant to put an end to the hostilities.
According to the agreement, Hezbollah was required to pull its forces north of the Litani River and have its military infrastructure in the vacated area dismantled.
Israel was meant to pull back its forces and halt its attacks, though it has carried out regular strikes in the south and has kept troops deployed in five border points it deems strategic.
Hezbollah has repeatedly rejected calls to disarm, and many fear a wider Israeli escalation should Beirut fail to deliver on its plans.
The ceasefire is monitored by a committee that includes the United States, France, UN peacekeepers, Lebanon and Israel, and is slated to meet on December 19.
Lebanese army shows ambassadors efforts to disarm Hezbollah
https://arab.news/8bfab
Lebanese army shows ambassadors efforts to disarm Hezbollah
- The Lebanese army has set a goal of dismantling Hezbollah’s military infrastructure south of the Litani River by year’s end
- Army chief said the tour was intended to highlight the army’s commitment to the efforts in spite of its “limited capabilities”
‘No to the war’: Spain digs in as rift with US deepens
- Pedro Sanchez: ‘We will not be complicit in something that is harmful to the world and contrary to our values and interests’
- US forces use the Rota naval base and Moron air base in southern Spain under an agreement signed in 1953 under the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco
MADRID: Spain’s prime minister defiantly posted “No to the war” on Wednesday, deepening a rift with the United States after Madrid refused the use of its bases to attack Iran and Washington threatened trade reprisals.
Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had already angered US President Donald Trump with a series of other policies.
Sanchez has refused to join NATO allies in a pledge to boost defense spending to five percent of GDP as demanded by Trump, and has fiercely criticized Israel’s war in Gaza.
Trump lashed out at Sanchez’s government on Tuesday, calling Spain a “terrible” ally and threatening to sever all trade with Spain.
Sanchez defended his position on Wednesday, saying his government’s position “can be summed up in four words: no to the war.”
“We will not be complicit in something that is harmful to the world and contrary to our values and interests, simply out of fear of retaliation,” he added in a televised address.
Spain is part of the European Union, which allows goods to move freely between its 27 countries. This would complicate any bid to impose trade restrictions on a single member state.
“Trump’s words don’t always become policy. We will have to see if he follows through, and how,” said Angel Saz Carranza, director of the Esade Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics, a Spanish think tank.
European Council chief Antonio Costa wrote on X that he had called Sanchez to “express the EU’s full solidarity with Spain.”
“The EU will always ensure that the interests of its member states are fully protected,” Costa said.
French President Emmanuel Macron also called to “express France’s European solidarity in response to the recent threats of economic coercion targeting Spain,” his office said.
‘Oppose this disaster’
US forces use the Rota naval base and Moron air base in southern Spain under an agreement signed in 1953 under the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Spain, then led by conservative prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, staunchly backed the United States by sending troops.
Spain’s participation in the Iraq war sparked huge street demonstrations and many Spaniards blame it for the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed nearly 200 people.
A branch of Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks and called for the withdrawal of Spanish forces from Iraq.
Sanchez on Wednesday compared the Iran attacks to the Iraq war, which he said increased terrorism, increased energy prices and led to a less secure world.
“We oppose this disaster,” he said in reference to the Iran war.
In contrast, neighboring Portugal authorized the United States to “conditionally” use an air base on the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean for the Iran strikes, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro told parliament on Wednesday.
The authorization was granted as long as “these operations are defensive or retaliatory, are necessary and proportionate, and exclusively target military objectives,” Montenegro said.
The conservative leader said those conditions were “aligned with international law,” but he declined to openly support Sanchez or take a stance on the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Rally his base
The Spanish prime minister has emerged as a prominent figure for Europe’s disillusioned progressives, who see him as one of the few remaining openly leftist voices in a continent increasingly dominated by right-wing politics.
His opposition to the use of the bases is seen by some analysts as an attempt to rally his supporters around an issue that unites the Spanish left.
Sanchez, in power since 2018, heads a minority coalition government that struggles to pass legislation.
The popularity of his Socialist party has taken a hit from a string of sexual harassment and graft scandals ahead of the next general election due in 2027.
Many on Spain’s right consider Sanchez’s opposition to Trump as motivated more by domestic politics than by a moral compass.
The head of the main opposition conservative Popular Party which tops opinion polls, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, accused Sanchez on X of using foreign policy for “partisan” purposes.
Left-leaning daily newspaper El Pais urged Sanchez in an editorial on Wednesday to “resist the temptation” to “exploit widespread hostility toward Trump in Spanish society to boost his popularity.”
