Israel Expands Its Demand from the Litani to Al-Awwali... This Was Revealed by a Prominent Source in Hezbollah

A prominent source in Hezbollah revealed to Al-Joumhouria that "we are still in the stage of political pressures and maneuvers, and we have become the target of Arab and international envoys with one goal: Hezbollah's weapons, whether to contain them, neutralize their role, or disarm them."

The source said: "Containing the weapons means freezing their use in a clear and explicit manner, by extracting certain guarantees presented by each envoy in his own way, such as those directly proposed by the Egyptian Intelligence Director Major General Hassan Rashad, or in a covert manner, like an under-the-table agreement, as we were whispered. The fundamental idea around which everything revolves is that the Israeli side considers its opportunity golden to completely disarm Hezbollah, and it is working to achieve this goal by all means available, involving everyone in all frameworks and directions."

The source added: "In reading this matter, the likelihood of war weakens, because the American perspective ultimately is that these pressures allow achieving what the Israelis want, and the Lebanese state is making concession after concession, step by step. Therefore, the American sees that continuing to besiege Hezbollah leads to neutralizing the use and effectiveness of the weapons, or at least pressuring Hezbollah to make concessions. The American benefits from Israeli obstinacy and its continued attacks and failure to adhere to the ceasefire agreement. The Trump-Netanyahu meeting is certainly a pivotal meeting and a key indicator of the direction of affairs. They know that war is not guaranteed to succeed in the end and will not lead to disarming or withdrawing Hezbollah's weapons. This can only be achieved through a ground invasion, which would turn into an endless epic, causing more massacres and destruction without changing the equation. Ultimately, Lebanon is committed to the ceasefire, the army has deployed south of the river and cleared it of weapons, and now there is a division to geographically expand the disarmament area and move from south of the Litani to the Al-Awwali River."

The source revealed that "a new condition has begun to be marketed by Israel, requesting to expand the area from which it wants to disarm, from south of the Litani northwards to Al-Awwali, and it requests security guarantees in this geographic area because it believes it would have pushed Hezbollah back from a distance of 40 km to 70 km, turning it into a safe zone where only the Lebanese army is deployed. This also includes disarming the camps, thus in its view, the conditions of any battle would be unequal, imposing new rules of engagement that allow it to control all these areas easily. Hezbollah will not accept this because practically, if the enemy receives this card, it means it will not withdraw backward but advance forward, as is happening in Gaza and Syria." The source confirmed that "despite everything that has happened, Hezbollah is not weak, so we will witness more pressures and intimidation campaigns. Surrendering the weapons is out of the question, and the priority is to compel the enemy to implement the agreement."