Beirut – Lebanon approved a plan Wednesday to deploy its army south of the Litani River to extend government control in the region for the first time in nearly four decades, a key provision of the U.N. cease-fire plan that ended fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
But the Cabinet decision fell short of agreement on disarming the Shiite Muslim militant group, which has insisted it has the right to defend Lebanese territory as long as Israeli troops remain in the country.
“There will be no confrontation between the army and brothers in Hezbollah,” Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said after the Cabinet meeting. “That is not the army’s mission. … They are not going to chase or, God forbid, exact revenge (on Hezbollah).”
The army has been assembling north of the Litani, 18 miles from the Israeli border, and was to cross the river this morning.
The cease-fire plan calls for the force to reach 15,000 and to be joined eventually by an equal number of international peacekeepers to take over the region as Israeli forces withdraw.
Israel had threatened to halt its withdrawal if the Lebanese army did not move south.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the Israeli pullout depended on the presence of both the Lebanese army and an international force.
She also said she wanted the international force to help monitor the border to prevent Iran and Syria from replenishing Hezbollah’s weapons.
“If there is a place that Israel can withdraw from and the Lebanese army can come, plus international forces, we’ll do it,” Livni said after meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York. “But if it takes time until the international forces are organized, it takes time until Israel withdraws. This is the equation.”
Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the Israeli chief of staff, said earlier that Israeli soldiers would remain in southern Lebanon for months if necessary.
Israel has withdrawn some of its force, which numbered as high as 30,000 during the conflict that began July 12 when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.
Despite continued division over disarming Hezbollah, the plan to deploy Lebanese troops was a major step toward meeting demands that the guerrillas be removed from Israel’s northern frontier.
It also would mark the extension of government sovereignty over the whole country for the first time since 1969, when the Lebanese government sanctioned Palestinian cross-border attacks on Israel.
The Lebanese government, which includes two Hezbollah ministers, met for the first time since the cease-fire took hold Monday, after two postponements because of divisions over Hezbollah’s arms. The guerrillas have resisted pressure to give them up or even withdraw them from the border area.
“There will be no authority or weapons other than those of the state,” Aridi said. “If any weapon is found, even the brothers in Hezbollah have said, ‘Let it be in the hands of the army. No problem.”‘
