United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that UN peacekeepers have discovered more than “100 weapons caches” belonging to Hezbollah and its allies in south Lebanon since the November 27 ceasefire between Israel and the terror group.
Guterres, speaking near the Israeli border, and French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in Beirut, also called on Israel to withdraw from south Lebanon.
Guterres reiterated that under the November 27 agreement, Lebanese government forces and UNIFIL peacekeepers are the only parties entitled to bear arms in Lebanon south of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border with Israel.
In an apparent reference to Israel and Hezbollah, Guterres said that the “presence of armed personnel, assets and weapons” in south Lebanon — other than those of the Lebanese army and the UNIFIL peacekeeping force — would “undermine Lebanon’s stability” and also violate UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war.
Guterres, who spoke on a visit to the UNIFIL headquarters in southern Lebanon’s Naqura, near the Israeli border, said Israel’s operations inside Lebanon “must stop.”
“The continued occupation by the Israel [military] inside the UNIFIL area operations and the conduct of military operations in Lebanese territory are violations of Resolution 1701,” said Guterres, who also met with Macron in Beirut on Friday.
French President Emmanuel Macron (R) listens to UN chief Antonio Guterres during their meeting in Beirut, January 17, 2025. (Ludovic Marin / AFP)
Israel has said its operations in south Lebanon were in response to Hezbollah’s violations of the ceasefire, and accused UNIFIL and the Lebanese military of failing to enforce both Resolution 1701 and the November 27 agreement.
Under the agreement, the IDF is required to cede all of its positions in southern Lebanon to Lebanese and UNIFIL forces within 60 days, by January 26. At the same time, Hezbollah is required to retreat north of the Litani.
The agreement, which ended almost 14 months of war, allows Israel to act against imminent threats by Hezbollah, while less imminent threats are to be referred to a five-member committee comprising representatives of the United States, France, Lebanon, Israel and UNIFIL.
Macron, whose government helped broker the deal, called on Israel on Friday to accelerate its troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
“We need a total withdrawal of the Israeli army,” Macron said, speaking in Beirut alongside Lebanon’s new president, Joseph Aoun, who also stressed the “importance of consolidating the [Israel-Hezbollah] ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal,” according to an X post by the Lebanese presidency.
French President Emmanuel Macron (L) is welcomed by Lebanon’s new President Joseph Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon, January 17, 2025. (Anwar Amro / AFP)
Macron said France supports “the increased power of the Lebanese armed forces and their deployment in the south.”
“The Lebanese Armed Forces constitute a pillar of the sovereignty of Lebanon,” added Macron.
He also hailed Aoun’s election, saying it represented the possibility of a new path for Lebanon and that “the true, authentic Lebanon has returned.”
Macron is the first foreign head of state to visit Lebanon since Aoun’s election, which was supported by France, the United States and Saudi Arabia. As a former French protectorate, Beirut has strong historical ties with Paris.
Aoun had led the LAF until the Lebanese parliament elected him head of state on January 9, ending a two-year vacancy.
Aoun’s appointment signaled a shift in Lebanon’s power balance after Iran-backed Hezbollah was left deeply weakened by its war with Israel.
IDF troops with the 769th ‘Hiram’ Regional Brigade operate in southern Lebanon, in a handout photo issued on December 31, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)
The new president has vowed to uphold the Lebanese government’s monopoly on the right to bear arms — a thinly veiled threat against Hezbollah, the only group in Lebanon that refused to surrender its weapons to the state following the 1975-1990 civil war.
Aoun’s election was followed this week by the designation of International Court of Justice chief Nawaf Salam as prime minister, against the wishes of Hezbollah, which wanted the incumbent Najib Mikati to remain in the post.
The Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire agreement came two months after the IDF invaded south Lebanon to stem the persistent rocket fire that had forced the displacement of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel.
Unprovoked, Hezbollah began attacking Israel on a near-daily basis on October 8, 2023 — a day after fellow Iran-backed terror group Hamas mounted a thousands-strong assault on southern Israel in which they killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
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