BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Tuesday demanded a scheduled withdrawal of Israeli troops from south Lebanon as authorities said Israeli gunfire killed two people there despite a recent lull in fighting.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun rejected Israel’s occupation of the south and foreign interference in his country’s affairs — an allusion to Hezbollah’s backer Iran — as a fifth round of Israel-Lebanon talks began in Washington.
On Monday, mediators Pakistan and Qatar said that Tehran and Washington had agreed to set up a “de-confliction cell” to limit flare-ups in Lebanon following talks in Switzerland on ending the wider Middle East war, which Tehran has linked to halting the parallel conflict in Lebanon.
“We now have a ceasefire. The withdrawal must take place according to a timetable. Israel has no choice but to fully withdraw from all Lebanese territory, without retaining an inch,” Qassem said, in a televised address.
Deadly clashes between Israel and Hezbollah on Friday and Saturday had rattled the fledgling US-Iran deal, which provides for a cessation of hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon.
