Germany puts pressure on Hezbollah to ‘separate’ Lebanon and Gaza fronts

A meeting is said to have taken place in Beirut two weeks ago between the deputy head of the German Intelligence Service, Ole Diehl, and the Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem.

“The extraordinary meeting did not provide any serious result and the German side did not succeed in convincing Hezbollah to separate between the Lebanon front and the Gaza front,” said the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation. “Qassem refused to talk about any idea of a settlement on the Lebanese front before stopping the war in Gaza, calling on the German official to put pressure on Israel to stop its attacks.”

The border areas in southern Lebanon have witnessed a lot of tension, exchanges of fire and missile bombardments between the Israeli army and Hezbollah ever since Hamas launched its cross-border incursion on 7 October and Israel declared war on Gaza.

On Saturday, the Israeli army announced intensive training on the border with Lebanon as part of its efforts to improve combat readiness amid the escalation in the region. “The training was carried out to prepare the forces to fight in densely populated civilian areas, in winter weather conditions and in the northern terrain,” the army explained.

Meanwhile, according to the Lebanese LBCI channel, Hezbollah has received intelligence from an unnamed Arab country that Israel is planning to launch a major operation deep inside Lebanon that may lead to an escalation.

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