The framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon is “historic and significant,” but Jerusalem is prepared to immediately resume military operations against Hezbollah and its Iranian patron if necessary, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Sunday.
Zamir spoke after approving plans for continued defensive operations in the security zone in Southern Lebanon, in line with the framework agreement reached with Beirut on Friday.
“We will honor the agreement and work to ensure its success,” Zamir said following the visit to the IDF Northern Command headquarters in Safed. He added, “The test now is the actions of both sides, and the coming period will shape the future.”
“Troops from the 36th Division and our Commando Brigade maintain operational control of the Beaufort Ridge area and are equipped with all the tools and capabilities needed to degrade the enemy,” he told soldiers. “All IDF capabilities are here to continue supporting you in accomplishing the mission.”
Hezbollah during the past two and a half years of war was “severely weakened” and its terror operatives are hiding underground, the chief of staff noted.
The IDF on Sunday destroyed an underground Hezbollah complex in southwestern Lebanon containing hundreds of weapons and several rocket silos that was located some five miles north of the border with Israel inside the security zone.
“The IDF maintains operational control of the area and remains on high alert to deliver swift and decisive strikes should the ceasefire be violated,” Zamir declared in his remarks. “We are prepared to rapidly resume offensive operations in both Lebanon and Iran if required.”
Israel, Lebanon and the United States signed a framework agreement on Friday aimed at removing Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon and laying the groundwork for broader political cooperation between Jerusalem and Beirut.
The agreement lays out two pilot zones recommended by the IDF, where the Lebanese Armed Forces would deploy and disarm the Iranian proxy.
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday said that the framework agreement “will not pass” and “will not be implemented.”
Berri, who is an ally of Hezbollah, told Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar daily that his Amal movement would “confront” the deal in the Lebanese Cabinet.
Hezbollah renewed its rocket and drone attacks from Southern Lebanon on Israel on March 2, following the targeted killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of “Operation Roaring Lion” on Feb. 28.
In response, Jerusalem launched a broad aerial campaign against Hezbollah targets and expanded military operations in Lebanon aimed at preventing cross-border attacks on Israeli communities.
Following the resumption of hostilities, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun vowed to do “the impossible” to stop cross-border hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, and moved to outlaw the Iranian proxy.
Israeli and Lebanese officials subsequently held five rounds of historic direct talks at the U.S. State Department, resulting in the framework of understandings that was reached on Friday and is conditioned on Hezbollah being removed from the south.
A senior Israeli official told JNS on Sunday that one achievement of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s framework agreement with Lebanon is that it “trumps” the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran reached through Pakistani mediation earlier this month.
That agreement called for an “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” even before Hezbollah’s disarmament.
More significantly, the Israeli official said, “serious international relations scholars will tell you that a key achievement of the trilateral framework is that Lebanon recognizes the sovereignty of Israel for the first time since the very short-lived recognition in the early 1980s.”
The official noted that Beirut failed to recognize Jerusalem’s sovereignty even in the “outrageous” maritime agreement negotiated by the Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Yair Lapid in late 2022.
The latest deal with Lebanon, “for a number of reasons, could eventually turn out to be even bigger than the Abraham Accords,” the official predicted.
