Berri pledges Hezbollah disarmament south Litani, rejects pilot zones as time waste

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri pledged on behalf of ally Hezbollah to make the region south of the Litani river weapon-free, if Israel commits this time to a ceasefire in Lebanon.

Berri told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, in remarks published Monday, that he supports a gradual withdrawal from south Lebanon based on districts and not "pilot zones" as he considered that dividing the region into pilot zones would be a waste of time and would slow down the Israeli withdrawal from the south.

Berri proposed a strict timeline for Israel's withdrawal from southern districts, instead of getting bogged down in defining geographic borders for pilot zones and disagreeing over how to divide these pilot areas.

He said he is constantly communicating with President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, despite differences in viewpoints, and that they are united on Lebanon's core goals - securing Israel's withdrawal from the south, deploying the Lebanese Army there, ensuring the return of displaced residents to their towns and villages, freeing the prisoners, and launching a reconstruction plan with Arab and international backing.

"Hezbollah is committed to the ceasefire, Israel is the party violating it," he said, as he hoped that the truce would hold this time through American pressure.