NEW YORK – Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon will be a phased approach across different sectors that will take no longer than 60 days, a senior Biden administration official said shortly after President Joe Biden announced Israel and Hezbollah’s ceasefire.
Lebanese military and security forces will begin their deployment toward the South, a process the official said cannot happen overnight or in several days.
The senior official confirmed that this ceasefire “represents all the entities” needed to join this understanding in announcing and holding to it.
“And therefore, there is this period to prevent any vacuums from being formed, whereas [when] the Lebanese military deploys and reaches the south, the Israeli military will withdraw,” according to the official, explaining how all Israeli troops will be withdrawn somewhere in the 50- to 60-day mark.
The official explained how the current deal differs from the 2006 agreement, where Hezbollah was supposed to withdraw north of the Litani River, with the south maintained by UNIFIL.
In reality, the official said, Hezbollah never withdrew, and UNIFIL was never able to perform that task.
What the withdrawal entails
There is now an agreed-upon map that is roughly north of the Litani line, according to the official, although the line deviates in certain areas going further north of the Litani line.
The Lebanese army will receive authorization and instruction from the Lebanese government where they are both authorized and instructed to “fulfill their mission and to ensure they take position in the south and that Hezbollah is moving north of the line that was agreed on in the Lebanese Armed Forces deployment plan,” according to the official.
The Lebanese military will be patrolling the area and ensuring that if any infrastructure or weaponry remains, it will be removed and that no such infrastructure can be rebuilt again, the official noted.
The official said the US and France would join an existing mechanism called the “tripartite mechanism,” created shortly after the 2006 war to include UNIFIL.
The agreement now states that the tripartite mechanism will be “reformulated and enhanced to include France and will be chaired by the US.”
“What this means is that the United States, both through diplomats and military personnel, is going to be receiving any complaints by either side of any potential violations,” according to the official. “If they are there, they will work with the Lebanese army.”
Information will flow on a “real-time basis” to deter potential violations.
The official underscored that no US combat troops will be on the ground in Lebanon, but there will be continued military support for the Lebanese Armed Forces, specifically with the Lebanese army in conjunction with the French military. However, the official would not say how many US troops will be involved in providing this support.
The official also elaborated on the Military Technical Committee, which the US revived several months ago, which includes several other countries contributing military support through equipment, training, and financial resources.
“The idea here is that unlike in 2006, where the international community reached an agreement and then abandoned the scene, here we remain committed to be on the ground, day to day, to watch what’s happening,” the official said.
The official said the Biden administration is “fully expecting adherence” and would hope that neither Israel nor Hezbollah violates the agreement.
There should not be a need by either side to take action, according to the official, but both Lebanon and Israel retain the right of self-defense in accordance with international law.
If either party views that the other is committing a violation, it should be addressed immediately, and if the responsible parties do not address it and it develops into a direct threat, then either country would have the right to defend itself, according to the official.
The international community will also be supporting a reconstruction and economic rebuilding of Lebanon, according to the official, learning from the mistakes of the past where Hezbollah was the only organization doing any reconstruction work.
It’s in the international community’s collective interest to support economic growth and bring Lebanon back to health, the official maintained.
“Hezbollah is extremely weak at this moment, both militarily and politically, and this is the opportunity for Lebanon to reestablish its sovereignty over its territory, to appoint a president, and to attract investment so it can return to economic normalcy and independence again,” the official elaborated.
Israel has had tremendous gains on the battlefield against Hezbollah, the official explained, taking out most of its senior leadership and taking out a significant portion of its military capabilities, but Israel cannot win long-term security on the battlefield alone.
The senior official briefed President-elect Donald Trump’s national security team twice within the past 48 hours on the tenets of the deal and the expectation that there was a higher likelihood of it coming to fruition.
The official thought Trump’s team agreed that the ceasefire was good for Israel, as it’s good for Lebanon and the national security of the US.
The official also said Israel’s ceasefire with Lebanon is the one thing that would put pressure on Hamas, which should now realize that Hezbollah has decided to abandon them and de-link the two conflicts.
“President Biden has felt... as long as there’s an opportunity to get to a deal in Gaza that both addresses the terrible state that the Gazan people have had to endure and that brings the hostages, including the Americans, home, that it is incumbent upon us to do everything that we can to achieve that,” the official said.