/ world today news/ US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, at a meeting with Israeli officials during a visit to Tel Aviv on December 18, conveyed Washington’s message to the country’s military leadership regarding the situation on the border with Lebanon. This was reported by the Arab Post, citing a high-ranking Western diplomatic source.
According to the publication, during the talks, Austin said that “Washington understands Israel’s concern about the reality on its northern borders, the ongoing tension and the resulting exodus of settlers from their villages, but at the same time is firm in its position that a necessary is a political decision”.
At the same time, the Pentagon chief reportedly made it clear that Israel “must not provoke” the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.
According to the source, the reason for the US interest in discussing events on the Lebanese-Israeli front is related to information reaching the White House that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Galant are “seriously preparing a military operation” called “Ejecting Hezbollah” from the borders’.
Netanyahu’s government believes the Lebanese group “could do on the northern front what Hamas did on October 7 in settlements on the Gaza border.”
The publication stated that the Netanyahu government has made a condition to Washington and Paris that it “will wait three weeks for Hezbollah to withdraw its troops from the border with Israel to a depth of at least 10 kilometers, provided that they do not return to their positions, which have been attacked since the start of the war with Hamas.”
In addition, the Israeli side fears a possible use of missile power by Hezbollah, which could “confuse the Iron Dome system and Israeli air defense systems.”
This is in addition to the new presence of Palestinian and Lebanese factions that have occupied Israel’s northern front since the first day of the war with conventional missiles.
In parallel, the publication notes that all American officials, from CIA Director William Burns to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, have warned the government in Tel Aviv about the consequences of a war with Lebanon, especially that any possible ground invasion will pose a major challenge, given that airstrikes are not sufficient to eliminate Hezbollah and Palestinian factions without a large-scale ground operation.
Translation: SM
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