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BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Friday that Israeli army detonations near a Unesco-listed castle in the south were a “direct threat” to a recent deal agreed with Israel. Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that “Israeli forces triggered very powerful explosions” overnight, specifically “in the area of the Beaufort fortress”, a Crusader-era castle located in an area near the border occupied by Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said the army had destroyed “terror tunnels in the Beaufort area” using approximately 700 tonnes of explosives.
Aoun called the explosions “an extremely dangerous escalation and a clear violation of existing commitments”, according to a statement from his office, as well as “a direct threat to the process which was launched as part of the framework agreement” reached with Israel during US-sponsored talks in June. Under the Israel-Lebanon deal, Lebanon’s army is to disarm Hezbollah and the Israeli military is to withdraw from “pilot zones” where Lebanese forces will subsequently deploy.
The timing of the blasts ahead of another round of talks with Israel in Rome next week “sends negative messages and undermines international efforts aimed at consolidating stability”, Aoun added.
