The US Department of State called on the Lebanese Hezbollah group to withdraw fighters to the north of Litani River and on the Israeli occupation forces to withdraw to the south of the Blue Line.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the State Dept. Spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “We have always been very clear that the diplomatic resolution that we want to see is the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701.” “That has been our priority, and it’s what you’ve heard from the United States going back to the immediate days after October 7th when Hezbollah began launching rocket attacks against Israel,” he pointed out.
“We ultimately do want to get to a ceasefire and we do want to get to a diplomatic resolution, and we want to get to a diplomatic resolution that includes Hezbollah finally, after 18 years, fully complying with what that Security Council resolution called on them to do. “And those are things that they have not done over the past 18 years since 1701 was adopted, setting down their arms, withdrawing to north of the Litani River.
“And it is their refusal to comply with that Security Council resolution that has gotten us to the place that we are today. “So, yes, we do see Israel having the right to conduct these limited incursions to degrade Hezbollah’s capability, to degrade its infrastructure, to inflict losses in terms of the number of militants that it has available to fight against Israel, and to — to launch terrorist attacks on civilians, and ultimately to weaken Hezbollah.
“And we would like to see the outcome of that being Hezbollah — be Hezbollah finally agreeing to do what it said it would do 18 years ago.
“We do want — we do want to ultimately get to a ceasefire. As I said, we ultimately want to get to a diplomatic resolution,” Miller stressed. “The situation on the ground has changed from where we are two weeks ago, and we hope that this change in situation on the ground will change Hezbollah’s calculation, ultimately. “Because even when we were putting forward that ceasefire proposal and trying to get to the full implementation of 1701, I can tell you there were a lot of people, and you — you see people publicly commenting on this, quite skeptical of whether Hezbollah, even at the end of a 21 day ceasefire, was going to fully agree to go back to the Litani River, given the fact that they have refused to do that for the past 18 years.
“Maybe their calculation will be different in the days and weeks ahead. That’s the proposition that will be tested.
“To be clear, when we say that we want to see 1701 implemented, that includes all the provisions of 1701.
“That doesn’t just mean the provisions that apply to Hezbollah. It means Israel withdrawing south of the Blue Line as well,” the spokesperson made clear.
“We want to see every provision implemented, and that includes — that includes the provisions, as I just said, for Israel,” he reiterated.
Source: Kuwait News Agency
