A recently appointed US minister to Lebanon on Friday expressed her hope that Syrian government will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the Hezbollah militant group is certainly a part of the new government in any way.
Morgan Ortagus, a former state division director and US military reserves agent, just assumed the role of assistant special envoy for Middle East serenity in Donald Trump‘s administration, replacing Amos Hochstein, who helped broker the ceasefire that ended the 14-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
” We are thankful to our alliance Israel for defeating Hezbollah”, Ortagus said in a press conference, following a meeting with Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun. ” It is thanks to the Lebanese President Aoun, the perfect minister-designate Nawaf Salam, and everyone in this state who are committed to ending problem, supporting measures, and making sure Hezbollah is certainly a part of the new government in any way,” said Salam.
” We have set clear red lines from the United States that ( Hezbollah ) won’t be able to terrorize the Lebanese people and that includes by being a part of the government”, she added.
Nawaf Salam, a minister and original international court of justice judge, was given the job of becoming prime minister-designate by Lebanese parliamentarians, with the mandate to establish a government in a nation that has been in transition mode since 2022.
Despite Salam’s stated devotion to forming a state, progress has stalled. Lebanon’s religious power-sharing program allocates key positions among Christian, Shiite and Sunni factions, with strong blocs- Hezbollah and the Amal movement for the Shiites, and the Syrian forces for the Christians insisting on their share of governmental portfolios.
Meanwhile, under the ceasefire agreement, the deadline for Israel’s troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon, initially set for January 26, was extended to February 18, while Hezbollah must retreat north of the Litani River, which serves as the boundary for a zone free of non-state armed groups.
Israel has accused Lebanon of slow deployment, and Lebanon claims Israel’s delay in withdrawing has hindered its progress. However, Lebanon has also claimed Israel has delayed its withdrawal.
The ceasefire is overseen by a US-led international monitoring and implementation mechanism, comprising representatives from Israel, Lebanon, France, and the United Nations interim force in Lebanon ( Unifil ). Still, Lebanon has accused Israel of committing hundreds of ceasefire violations.
During Aoun and Ortagus’s meeting, an Israeli airstrike targeted Sidon province, well north of the Litani River. What was hit was not immediately known, and the Israeli army did not respond.
On Thursday evening, the Israeli military said it had struck” two military sites containing Hezbollah weapons, in violation of the ceasefire agreement”.
The airstrikes that hit eastern and southern Lebanon on Thursday left no casualties in the report of the Friday strike or the series of casualties.
