Lebanon calls on Israel to make unconditional withdrawal of army

JERUSALEM, March 7 (JTA) — The Lebanese government is pressuring Israel to make an unconditional withdrawal from southern Lebanon. According to the Lebanese prime minister, Lebanon will not discuss any security arrangements or guarantees for an Israeli withdrawal from the Jewish state’s security zone in southern Lebanon. “Our position is firm and will not change,” Selim al-Hoss said Saturday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that he would seek such security arrangements in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal. There have been growing calls in Israel for a withdrawal, particularly after seven Israelis — including an army general — were killed during the past two weeks in the security zone. On Sunday, Netanyahu dismissed suggestions that he planned to propose to the Lebanese government that the two sides hold direct negotiations on the matter. Netanyahu was responding to a report in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz that he intended to issue a public call this week to Hoss to hold talks without Syria, the leading power broker in Lebanon. According to Likud sources cited in the article, such talks would help Netanyahu in the May elections for prime minister. Although Netanyahu described the Ha’aretz report as “inaccurate,” he said recent statements by Hoss regarding an Israeli troop pullback were worthy of consideration. In an interview with the BBC last Friday, Hoss said that if Israel were willing to pull back to the international border, the terms of a 1949 armistice agreement would be reactivated. That accord barred attacks by military or paramilitary groups on either side of the border against military or civilian targets. After the BBC interview, the Lebanese premier said he was referring to an unconditional Israeli withdrawal. Just the same, Netanyahu said Sunday that he believes “there is room for discreet inquiries” about Hoss’ comments. At the same time, Netanyahu reaffirmed his position that any withdrawal must be accompanied by safety guarantees for Israel’s northern settlements. “We will get out only when I know that Hezbollah will not be able to get inside the border,” he said. Israel created the 9-mile-wide security zone more than a decade ago to protect its northern border from Hezbollah attacks. Israel’s rising death toll in southern Lebanon has spurred repeated grassroots calls for a withdrawal, and the issue has become a hot topic in the ongoing election campaign. Last week, one of the candidates for prime minister, opposition leader Ehud Barak, pledged that if elected, he would get the Israeli troops out of Lebanon by June of next year. The pledge, and similar ones that subsequently came from other candidates, elicited criticism from the army top brass, which said that what is essentially a security issue should not be politicized.