Hezbollah chief pledges to coordinate with army to implement truce

[Pelican Press 0]

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Hezbollah chief pledges to coordinate with army to implement truce

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The head of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, pledged on Friday to coordinate closely with the Lebanese army to implement a ceasefire deal with *******, which he said his group had agreed to “with heads held high”.

It was his first address since a ceasefire came into effect on Wednesday after more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and ******* that decimated swathes of Lebanon and ******* 4,000 people including hundreds of women and children.

Qassem said Hezbollah had “approved the deal, with the resistance strong in the battlefield, and our heads held high with our right to defend (ourselves).”

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The ceasefire stipulates that Hezbollah will withdraw from areas south of the Litani river, which runs some 30 km (20 miles) north of the border with *******, and that the Lebanese army will deploy troops there as ******** ground troops withdraw.

“There will be high-level coordination between the Resistance (Hezbollah) and the Lebanese army to implement the commitments of the deal,” Qassem said.

The Lebanese army has already sent additional troops to the south but is preparing a detailed deployment plan to share with Lebanon’s cabinet, security sources and officials have said.

That effort has been complicated by the continuing presence of ******** troops on Lebanese territory. The deal grants them a full 60 days to complete their withdrawal.

The ******** military has issued restrictions on people returning to villages along Lebanon’s border with ******* and has fired at people in those villages in recent days, calling those movements a violation of the truce.

Both the Lebanese army and Hezbollah have accused ******* of breaching the ceasefire in those instances, and by launching an airstrike above the Litani River on Thursday.

Qassem said the group had scored a “divine victory” against ******* even greater than that declared after the two foes last fought in 2006.

“To those that were ******** that Hezbollah would be weakened, we are sorry, their bets have *******,” he said.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Timothy Heritage)

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