Iran warns Israel to leave Lebanon or be forced out
Shafaq News- Tehran/ Beirut
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Commander Ismail Qaani warned Israel on Thursday to withdraw from Lebanon or face "humiliation and defeat," amid conflicting accounts over whether Israeli forces have begun pulling back from occupied areas in southern Lebanon.
“You must leave all of Lebanon, because this land is a field of steadfastness and resistance, not a playground for occupiers,” Qaani said in remarks carried by Tasnim News Agency. “If you do not pull out voluntarily today, tomorrow you will be forced to flee.”
He also invoked a 2000 speech by the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah following Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon, delivered in the town of Bint Jbeil, which has recently witnessed major confrontations between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, affirming that "the same scene will be repeated once again."
In Washington, a US State Department official described an Israeli pullback from part of the buffer zone as a "significant demonstration of good faith" toward Lebanon's government under a US-backed proposal to transfer parts of the occupied territory to the Lebanese Army.
The official said the proposed pilot zones are intended to ensure the complete and verifiable dismantlement of Hezbollah's weapons and infrastructure before being expanded across southern Lebanon, paving the way for “the safe return of displaced families, reconstruction of the south, and the restoration of full Lebanese sovereignty.”
Senior Israeli and Lebanese sources, however, denied that any withdrawal had taken place. Speaking with Reuters, an Israeli defense official maintained that troops would remain in the self-declared “buffer zone,” while a Lebanese military official said recent developments "show the opposite of a pullback," noting that Israeli forces have continued enforcing the zone, including against Lebanese Army troops.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously insisted troops would remain in the buffer zone "for as long as necessary," while Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reiterated Lebanon’s rejection of Israeli occupation and external tutelage, stressing that Beirut would accept nothing less than an end to Israel’s presence in territories it considers occupied. Hezbollah, for its part, also rejected any Israeli "freedom of action" and renewed its demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Lebanese media reported on Thursday an Israeli drone strike near the town of Zawtar al-Sharqiya in the Nabatieh district, with no immediate reports of casualties. Another drone was reported to have dropped a stun grenade over Kfartebnit, while Israeli forces set fire to several homes in the southern town of Ain Arab, in Marjaayoun, after ordering residents to evacuate a day earlier.
On Wednesday, two people were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in the Nabatieh district of southern Lebanon, according to local media, despite a recent US-Iran memorandum of understanding extending a ceasefire across multiple fronts, including Lebanon. Hezbollah described the attack as a "flagrant violation" of the ceasefire, which it has “adhered to until now,” accusing Israel of deliberately targeting civilians inspecting their homes and saying it continues to monitor such violations.
