US general meets Lebanon’s army chief as ceasefire with Israel teeters
Control over a strategic ridge overlooking Nabatieh is emerging as a flashpoint between the Israeli military and Lebanon ahead of the next expected round of negotiations in September.
WASHINGTON — The top US military general overseeing monitoring of the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, Lt. Gen. Joseph Clearfield, met with Beirut's defense chief, Gen. Rudolf Haykal, on Monday after a series of Israeli airstrikes killed 11 people in and around the Nabatieh region of Lebanon's south.
What happened: The two generals and their teams discussed "the latest developments in the south" in light of the current ceasefire framework and "the escalation of attacks" by Israel, Lebanon's military said in a press release.
It was Clearfield's second visit to Lebanon in less than a week, having met with Haykal and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun last week to discuss operational details around apparent snags in implementing the pilot zones program, whereby Israeli forces are to withdraw in phases from areas of the south into which Lebanese forces are to move in to secure them from Hezbollah.
Israeli warplanes dropped bombs near the village of Ansar and in the town of Deir al-Zahrani on Sunday, killing at least nine people and wounding 19 others, local health authorities said. The strikes came after the Israeli military said three of its soldiers were wounded in an explosive drone attack near the Ali Taher ridge that it blamed on Hezbollah.
The Israeli military said it killed the Hezbollah commander responsible for the attack, Ali Samir al-Haj Hassan of the militia’s Radwan forces, in the Ansar strike on Sunday.
Background: Control over the Ali Taher ridge threatens to emerge as a flashpoint between the Lebanese government and the Israeli military ahead of the next planned round US-brokered talks in Rome in early September.
Israeli officials have reportedly sought US permission to seize the rest of the ridge, which overlooks the city of Nabatieh, and uproot remaining Hezbollah holdouts, Lebanese newspaper Al Joumhouria reported Friday. The US' position on control of the ridge remains unclear. A spokesperson for US Central Command was not immediately available to comment.
Clearfield and US Ambassador to Lebanon Michael Issa also met late last week with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. Lebanese military and political officials have argued that Israel's continued airstrikes and widespread bulldozing of residential areas have hampered the Lebanese military's ability to verify withdrawals and disarmament by Hezbollah.
Know more: Lebanese officials have reportedly pressed Clearfield's team to stop Israeli strikes in Lebanon, attacks that Beirut considers a violation of the ceasefire. The previous US administration arranged a side agreement with Israel allowing Israeli forces to strike during the ceasefire in self-defense, a practice that has continued into the Trump administration.
"They'll stop when it's time to stop," Issa said after meeting alongside Clearfield with Berri last week. "Tell Hezbollah that as soon as it hands over its weapons, everything will stop."
