'Israel' eyes war on Lebanon by month-end if no border deal: WashPo
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A Washington Post report cites US officials saying that the Israeli occupation has not provided a "hard deadline" but informed Washington last December that it is weeks away from taking military action against Lebanon.
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Lebanese soldiers stand on a hill overlooking the Israeli settlement of "Metulla" in northern occupied Palestine as a man waves the Palestinian and Hezbollah flags at the Lebanese-Palestinian border in South Lebanon, on October 9, 2023. (AP)
The Israeli occupation is considering launching an attack on Lebanon in the following two weeks in case a political agreement is not reached regarding Hezbollah's presence near the Lebanon-Palestine border, The Washington Post reported on Saturday citing sources.
Since the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon launched its operations last October in support of Gaza after the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, almost a quarter-million Israeli settlers evacuated northern occupied Palestine fearing Hezbollah's attacks, and a repeat of a scenario similar to that in the Gaza envelope on October 7.
Citing Western and Lebanese officials, the newspaper reported that Israelis informed Washington last December that it would have "no other option" but to carry out a military aggression against Lebanon if a diplomatic agreement is not reached that would allow the entity's settlers to return to the North.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Security Minister Yoav Gallant, and Army Chief Herzi Halevi had all similar announcements in the past month.
No scaling back
A week following the start of the war on Gaza, WSJ reported that President Joe Biden and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin personally intervened to stop Netanyahu's government from opening another front with Hezbollah, explaining that "Israel" would be unable to manage both fronts, and that destruction inflicted by the Resistance in Lebanon would be hugely more significant than that during a battle with the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza.
While the Israeli Prime Minister was already hesitant to make this move, the report said that he was being pressured by Gallant and Halevi.
In its attempt to cover "Israel's" bac,k directly after it started the aggression on Gaza, the United States deployed its most advanced warship - USS Gerald R. Ford - to the eastern Mediterranean (which has now been returned to the US after an extended deployment). It was followed later by multiple other Strike Groups which were stationed in the Red Sea and near the Gulf of Aden after Yemenis commenced operations.
But despite the power flex, operations started targeting Israeli military sites from Iraq, passing through Beirut to Sanaa, targeting Israeli economic interests as well as US occupation bases in Syria and Iraq due to Washington directly supporting "Israel" in the war on Gaza.
Additionally, Resistance groups in the region and Sanaa did not halt nor scale back the operations after continued threats from Washington, most recently a series of attacks on Yemen, but escalated them both in nature and intensity.
Either diplomatically or militarily
According to the Washington Post, Biden and European countries are working now on averting a war on the northern front in occupied Palestine.
No "hard deadline" was put forward by the occupation, the Post said, citing a US senior official, but he added that negotiations window is "narrowing."
Other sources confirmed to the media outlet that Israelis were eyeing the end of January for an agreement to be reached.
After Hezbollah started attacking Israeli military bases and settlements on October 8, the occupation army was forced to divert a significant number of its forces away from the war on Gaza and to the Lebanese borders. Additionally, almost half of the air defense batteries and air force were stationed in the North in case of any escalation.
Read more: Situation difficult, Hezbollah created security belt: Israeli media
In mid-Januardy, Netanyahu withdrew a large portion of the military participating in the Gaza invasion, mostly reserves, claiming that this measure aims to provide rest to the forces, deliver extra training, and aid the struggling economy. However, a part of the formations were transferred to the northern borders.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Lior Haiat, said regarding the entity's demands, "The Israeli position is that we prefer a diplomatic solution, and if a diplomatic solution will not be possible, we will have to act on our own."
White House envoy Amos Hochstein, who brokered last year an indirect demarcation agreement of the Lebanese southern maritime economic zone's borders, arrived in Beirut last week to present the Israeli demands and try to find a "preliminary solution," The Washington Post reported.
The clauses of the proposal state that Hezbollah's Resistance fighters - mainly elite Radwan forces according to Israeli media - are to withdraw north of the Litani River, almost 15 kilometers from the borders.
No ceiling or constraints
The Resistance had repeatedly reiterated in previous events that nothing regarding the Lebanese file would be discussed until the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza stops.
In 2000, Hezbollah liberated southern Lebanon from the Israeli occupation that lasted for around 20 years. However, the entity maintained its occupation of several Lebanese villages and towns on the border with Palestine.
Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech earlier this month that the occupied territories must be returned to Lebanon, or the Resistance would advance toward them, referring to liberating the occupied territories through military means.
Read more: Senior US official to visit 'Israel' hoping to prevent war: Reports
In other words, Sayyed Nasrallah hinted at a rejection of such a proposal where party fighters move away from the border lines.
On the other hand, while Hezbollah's chief stressed in every speech that recent operations against the occupation forces are in support of Gaza and that the party is not interested in a full-scale war, he declared that with "any foolishness" the Israelis might commit against Lebanon, the Resistance is ready and prepared to go into a full-scale war.
He also revealed in multiple speeches that Washington and some European countries have been placing pressure on Hezbollah to stop its attacks, including threats that "Israel" might eventually launch a war on Lebanon in response. But Sayyed Nasrallah confirmed that these threats are worthless and would not intimidate the Resistance, repeating that operations would not stop until the war on the Strip ceased.
The newspaper said that Hochstein's visit might at least provide a potential roadmap to resolving the matter after the war on Gaza ends.
