Berri: Hezbollah to withdraw from south Litani if full truce reached, Israel pulls back
Parliament Speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri said Friday that the Iran-backed group would withdraw from the area south of Lebanon's Litani River if Israel pulls out and a comprehensive ceasefire is reached.
"I agree to... Hezbollah's withdrawal from south of the Litani River in parallel with an Israeli withdrawal from the areas it occupies" and "a complete and comprehensive ceasefire without conditions", Berri, who acts as Hezbollah's mediator, said in a statement, as he blasted the rest of the agreement text as too "unjust" and "unworthy of discussion."
Berri dismissed the latest ceasefire proposal as a "hybrid" deal.
The Litani river, located about 30 kilometers north of the border with Israel, forms the boundary of a 2006 U.N.-established buffer zone in which Hezbollah is banned. Israeli troops have currently pushed far past the Litani River into southern Lebanon.
Berri said the ceasefire should be "complete and comprehensive" without any restrictions or conditions on land, at sea and in the air, and "without bulldozing and demolishing everything that exists." He was referring to wide areas that have been demolished by Israeli troops.
Berri criticized the creation of "pilot zones" in the agreement as well as calls for a unilateral ceasefire by Hezbollah.
Source: Agence France Presse
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