Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has said that the army would begin deploying in "pilot zones" in the country's south, a day after Israel and Lebanon agreed in Washington to implement a ceasefire.
"The next step is practical and tangible: the deployment of the Lebanese army in pilot zones as a first phase," Salam said, according to remarks read out by Information Minister Paul Morcos after a cabinet meeting, adding that "this does not prejudice our right to a full (Israeli) withdrawal, but brings us closer to it".
According to a joint statement released after the Washington talks, Israel and Lebanon agreed to create "pilot zones" in south Lebanon where the Lebanese army forces "will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors."
Earlier in the day, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem demanded a comprehensive ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon.
He vowed that "as long as our villages are unsafe - being bombed, destroyed and our people killed - the settlements (north Israel) are unsafe".
