South Lebanon is bracing for a new political stage after President Joseph Aoun appointed former ambassador to the United States, attorney Simon Karam, to head Lebanon’s delegation to the committee overseeing the implementation of the cessation of hostilities, known as the Mechanism.
Karam joined the committee’s meeting in Naqoura on Wednesday alongside United States envoy Morgan Ortagus.
Ortagus will represent Washington in meetings held by the United Nations mission at the ambassadorial level for Security Council members in Beirut on Friday. She is scheduled to meet the three leaders, President Joseph Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, as well as Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal, before travelling south the next day to meet the Mechanism and UNIFIL command.
Karam’s appointment followed a United States request to add a civilian to the Lebanese team amid escalating Israeli threats to expand the war at the end of this year in an attempt to enforce exclusive weapons control from north of the Litani to Lebanon’s border with Syria.
The expectation, according to Lebanese US contacts, is that such threats would recede under Washington’s guarantee, diffusing Israeli pressure in tandem with Karam’s designation.
Coordinated Step
Ministerial sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Aoun’s decision to appoint Karam was coordinated with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri with authorization from the latter’s ally, Hezbollah.
They said Aoun withheld the announcement until he secured American guarantees preventing Israel from widening the war.
The sources added that Aoun informed Ortagus of Karam’s appointment before her trip to Tel Aviv to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz.
They said Aoun also contacted Washington directly to ensure its readiness to provide guarantees curbing Israeli actions and preventing any expansion of hostilities while keeping the current rules of engagement intact.
The sources said the significance of Karam’s appointment lies in the political cover Aoun secured for the mission, blocking populist criticism, particularly from Hezbollah.
This, they noted, was achieved through Aoun’s communication with the party in parallel with Berri’s efforts to rule out any imminent expansion of the war before the announcement.
They pointed as well to the historic visit of Pope Leo XIV to Lebanon, describing it as having softened positions, with the mass public receptions during the visit serving as a popular mandate by tens of thousands of Lebanese calling for peace and stability.
Opening to Restart Negotiations
According to the sources, Lebanon’s international and Arab partners were informed of Karam’s appointment in line with Beirut’s intention to engineer a breakthrough that could revive negotiations and push Israel, through United States mediation and Mechanism oversight, to halt hostilities.
Discussions are meant to proceed under the framework of paving the way for the implementation of Resolution 1701, contingent on the state’s full authority over its territory.
They added that Karam’s appointment effectively signaled to the incoming United Nations mission that Lebanon was responding to international demands for peaceful negotiations with Israel, consistent with exclusive weapons control.
United Nations Mission Arrives Saturday
The sources said the United Nations mission will arrive in Beirut on Thursday evening, coming from Damascus after meeting Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and inspecting conditions in Syria.
They will travel to the south on Saturday to meet the Mechanism and UNIFIL command to review the army’s deployment in the liberated zone south of the Litani and the removal of Hezbollah’s military installations and infrastructure, and to discuss the post–UNIFIL mandate period after its scheduled end next year, including support for the army in implementing Resolution 1701.
They added that UNIFIL’s leadership would continue its mission through 2026 in line with Resolution 1701 despite funding shortages, but did not rule out a possible extension if United States-mediated Lebanese-Israeli negotiations make progress.
UNIFIL has already begun reducing its personnel and equipment and is preparing a new withdrawal phase.
Exclusive Weapons Control
The sources said that reactivating Mechanism meetings, if Israel responds to United States pressure to halt any expansion of the war, should help lower public fears in Lebanon despite continuing threats.
At the same time, Lebanon will be compelled to launch internal negotiations with Hezbollah, with Berri playing a constructive role, to draw up a timeline for completing exclusive weapons control from north of the Litani to the international border.
The first phase, ending this year, is considered on track according to Mechanism and UNIFIL assessments of the army’s deployment in the liberated area.
They said Lebanon has no objection to verifying Israeli claims that Hezbollah stores weapons in homes south of the Litani.
The problem, they argued, is that Israel has been bombing such homes instead of filing complaints to the Mechanism, which would refer them to the army and UNIFIL for verification under legal procedures.
Several Israeli strikes flattened homes south and north of the Litani that, according to the army, contained no Hezbollah weapons, prompting the army to submit detailed reports to the Mechanism.
Army Requirements and Filling UNIFIL’s Gap
A Western diplomatic source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the United Nations mission’s visit to the south is not limited to reviewing the situation on the ground or the army’s deployment amid Israel’s continued occupation of several frontline hills and its construction of two concrete walls that annexed about 4,500 square meters of Lebanese land.
The visit, the source said, is also meant to assess the army’s needs to fill the gap once UNIFIL withdraws.
The source asked whether an extension of UNIFIL’s mandate is possible in light of the mission’s ground assessment and the Security Council’s ability to reconsider ending its mission without full implementation of Resolution 1701, provided the United States refrains from vetoing such an extension.
UNIFIL remains, the source said, the only international witness for southerners on the resolution’s implementation unless the Mechanism’s mandate is expanded to allow Washington to directly oversee Lebanese Israeli negotiations should the resolution remain unimplemented.
Grace Period
The sources cautioned against prematurely drawing conclusions ahead of UNIFIL’s mandate expiry while Hezbollah appears to be buying time.
They said Karam’s appointment effectively extended Lebanon’s grace period, giving the government an opportunity to finalize the exclusive weapons framework and produce a timeline that would push Hezbollah to “Lebanonize” its stance and weapons in line with Lebanese rather than Iranian timing, as critics argue.
Failure to do so, they warned, could revive Israeli threats with American backing. Lebanon, they said, cannot afford to waste the opportunity granted to it, which should instead be used to secure the south and oblige Hezbollah to accept a phased handover of its weapons to the state.
