A meeting held between France, the United States and Saudi Arabia in Paris on Thursday resulted in an agreement to hold a conference in February aimed at supporting the Lebanese army.
Lebanese army commander Gen. Rodolphe Haykal held meetings with French, US and Saudi officials to discuss ways of assisting the army in its mission to boost its presence in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel. Haikal started his meetings first by holding talks with French military officials.
The French Foreign Ministry said political parties meeting in Paris agreed to hold a conference in February to support the Lebanese army.
The ministry added that the talks focused on how to demonstrate progress toward Hezbollah's disarmament, as the officials from the three countries met with the head of the Lebanese army to work on a road map for a disarmament mechanism.
A well-informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat that among the demands being made of the Lebanese military units is to “close the gaps” that Israel uses to accuse the army of negligence.
This includes the pressure Israel exerts to inspect homes it claims are being used to stockpile Hezbollah weapons.
There is also another demand that Lebanese military units be accompanied by UN peacekeepers when carrying out their missions. However, this issue has not yet been settled, especially in light of questions about what the situation will be after UNIFIL begins withdrawing from southern Lebanon at the start of 2026, the nature of the force that will replace it, and the role assigned to it.
The final decision on this matter will be left to the UN Security Council in terms of the speed and pace of UNIFIL’s pullout.
However, the issue of searching homes, as Israel is demanding, could provoke problems and disputes with residents in what is known as “Hezbollah’s environment.”
In August, the Security Council voted to extend the peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon until the end of 2026 but to then terminate the mission in an “orderly and safe drawdown and withdrawal” over the following year.
Thursday’s talks in Paris came a day before a meeting of the committee monitoring the enforcement of the US-brokered ceasefire that halted the war between Israel and Hezbollah a year ago.
The gathering on Friday will be the second meeting of the mechanism after Israel and Lebanon appointed civilian members to a previously military-only committee.
The group also includes the United States, France and UNIFIL.
The Lebanese government has said that the army should have cleared the whole border area south of the Litani River from Hezbollah’s armed presence by the end of 2025.
