Beirut – The militant group Hezbollah refused Tuesday to disarm and withdraw its fighters from the battle-scarred hills along the border with Israel, threatening to delay deployment of the Lebanese army and endangering a fragile cease-fire.
The makings of a compromise, however, emerged from all-day meetings in Beirut, according to senior officials involved in the negotiations, and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora scheduled a Cabinet session today for what he hoped would be formal approval of the deal.
Hezbollah indicated that it would be willing to pull back its fighters and weapons in exchange for a promise from the Lebanese army not to probe too carefully for underground bunkers and weapons caches, the officials said.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had insisted that any disarmament of his militia – even in the border area – should be handled in longer-term discussions within the Lebanese government, according to government ministers.
But the Lebanese army, backed by key political leaders, refused to send troops into the just-becalmed battle zone until Hezbollah’s missiles, rockets and other weapons were taken north of the Litani River, the ministers said.
At stake in the standoff was implementation of a crucial provision of the U.N. Security Council cease-fire that went into effect Monday.
The accord called for quick deployment of 15,000 Lebanese army troops south of the Litani River along the border with Israel.
They were to take up positions under the aegis of a reinforced contingent of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to form a peacekeeping corps with a total strength of about 30,000 assigned to separate armed Hezbollah units from the border.
Hezbollah’s reluctance to get its men and arms out of the border zone reflected nervousness over the continuing presence of Israeli soldiers on Lebanese soil.
But it also demonstrated the militant Shiite Muslim movement’s increased assertiveness after a war of more than a month during which it stood off the Israeli army while Lebanon’s national army stood aside.
In a televised speech Monday evening, Nasrallah accused those who are pushing Hezbollah for immediate disarmament of “insensitivity and immorality.”
He recalled that Lebanon’s Shiite-inhabited areas took the worst battering and suffered the highest number of casualties during 33 days of warfare in which about 800 Lebanese civilians were killed and 750,000 were driven from their homes.
“Those people have performed veritable miracles,” he said, referring to the Shiite Muslims who are the largest sect among Lebanon’s 4 million inhabitants.
The Israeli military said it would begin handing over its positions in Lebanon to UNIFIL officers before the end of the week.
A UNIFIL spokesman, Milos Strugar, said U.N. observers reported no significant Israeli withdrawals along the border on the second day of the cease- fire.
Israel television, however, showed troops walking and riding military vehicles back into Israel and dozens of tanks taking up positions on the Israeli side of the border.
“We are hoping the last IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers will cross the border in a matter of days,” Israeli Maj. Jonathan Davis said in an interview near the border.
Early today, the Israeli army said its forces killed a senior Hezbollah leader just before the U.N. cease-fire took effect.
Israeli forces killed the head of Hezbollah’s special forces, whom they identified as Sajed Dawayer, the army said.
Hezbollah said it knew of no one by that name. Hours earlier Hezbollah official Naim Kassem said that none of the guerrilla group’s senior leaders died during the fighting.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
