Plumbly on 1701 Report: Hizbullah, Lebanese Armed Factions Should Withdraw from Syria
United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly briefed on Wednesday the members of the Security Council on the implementation of resolution 1701.
Plumbly considered in his report that Hizbullah's arms are a “clear obstacle” facing the state, undermining its authority and preventing it from controlling all its territories.
The U.N. diplomat also expressed concern over the attacks launched by extremist groups, including the Islamic State and al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front, against the Lebanese army.
Plumbly also condemned the involvement of the Lebanese in the war raging in neighboring country Syria, demanding Hizbullah and other Lebanese factions to “withdraw from Syria.”
Hizbullah sent fighters to Syria to back President Bashar Assad's forces against rebels trying to remove him from power. The armed intervention in Syria earned the group the enmity of Syria's predominantly Sunni rebels. Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Over the past year, Syrian troops and Hizbullah fighters have captured most of the towns and villages in Syria's mountainous Qalamoun region along the Lebanon border, depriving the rebels of residential areas where they can stay during the winter.
However, Hizbullah's involvement in Syria had drawn the ire of many in Lebanon.
Plumbly also expressed fear over border violations in south Lebanon, in particular by the Israeli army.
Resolution 1701, which ended the Hizbullah-Israel war in 2006, expanded the mandate of U.N. troops in the South, which was originally formed in 1978 after the outbreak of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
It imposed a strict embargo on weapons destined for Lebanese or foreign militias in Lebanon, and pressed Israel to end violations of Lebanon's airspace and to withdraw from northern Ghajar.
H.K.
G.K.
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