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www.timesofisrael.com
Commenting on a possible escalation between Israel and Hezbollah following yesterday’s deadly rocket attack on Majdal Shams, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib says that Hezbollah is ready to withdraw beyond the Litani River — which runs some 29 kilometers (18 miles) north of the Israel-Lebanon border — if Israel halts its “violations.”
In an interview with the Saudi-owned Al Hadath news channel, Beirut’s top diplomat adds that Israel must “think carefully” before striking Lebanon, and that an escalation will affect Israel and the whole region.
Hezbollah is barred by UN Security Council Resolution 1701 from maintaining a military presence south of the Litani. The Shiite terror group has blatantly violated that resolution and regularly launches attacks on Israel from near the border.
In a separate interview, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt tells Al Jazeera that he had a conversation with US Special Envoy Amos Hochstein and told him that Hochstein’s task is “not to relay Israeli threats, but to seek mediation.” The remark appears to refer to earlier reports that quoted diplomatic sources in Beirut and Washington saying that an Israeli attack on Lebanon is “inevitable.”
Jumblatt, a prominent figure in Lebanese politics, absolves Hezbollah of any responsibility in the Majdal Shams attack, and adds that “we are counting on the efforts of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to reach a serious ceasefire with the American envoy [Hochstein] in southern Lebanon.”
Hezbollah already ready to run. Cowards.
