Neville Teller
Jerusalem Post, Feb. 24, 2025
“Israel’s confidence in the UN’s peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) is at a low ebb after 47 years of its total inability to control Hezbollah.”
The unhappy truth is that despite Hezbollah having received a military thrashing at the hands of the IDF, the organization still possesses considerable political power within Lebanon.
On February 7, during a visit to Beirut, US deputy Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus, highlighting concerns over the group’s influence and activities, stated that the US had set a “red line” against Hezbollah’s inclusion in Lebanon’s forthcoming government. Speaking after a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, she emphasized the US view that Hezbollah should not be part of the new administration in any form.
Aoun, beset by intense internal political pressure, simply ignored the US’s wishes. The next day Lebanon’s prime minister, Nawaf Salam, announced a 24-member cabinet that indeed includes representatives from the political alliance known as the “Shi’ite duo” – that is Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal movement. Together, they have secured four ministerial portfolios in the new government, and are negotiating for a potential fifth.
According to the terms of the November 2024 Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire agreement, the IDF was required to have withdrawn completely from southern Lebanon by January 26. But by then Hezbollah forces were to have moved out of the region between the Litani River and the so-called Blue Line – the boundary between Lebanon and Israel – and been replaced by the Lebanese army….SOURCE