Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, vowing that his country’s forces would stay in the area as long as Iran-backed Hezbollah remained a “threat”.
His comments came after Lebanon and Israel signed a framework agreement under US sponsorship last week to pave the way for peace between them and disarm Hezbollah.
The deal makes any Israeli withdrawal from occupied Lebanese land conditional on Beirut disarming Hezbollah by creating “pilot zones” that the Lebanese military will take over.