Qatar will aid reconstruction of Lebanon and pushes for Israel to withdraw

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister said on Tuesday that his country will participate in the reconstruction of southern Lebanon, which has been subjected to Israeli aggression, and stressed the need for the occupation state to withdraw from Lebanese territory. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani made his comment during a press conference in Beirut, following his meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Anadolu has reported.

His visit to Beirut, said the Qataris official, was to show support for Lebanon. He renewed his welcome of the election of Aoun as President. “We look forward to the new Lebanese government formation and the realisation of the hopes of the Lebanese people,” he added.

After a presidential vacuum that lasted for more than two years due to political differences, the Lebanese parliament elected Aoun as president on 9 January, with the support of 99 out of 128 MPs. Days after his election, Aoun summoned Judge Nawaf Salam, who was the president of the International Court of Justice, to task him with forming the new government, after he received 84 votes in parliament.

The Qatari Prime Minister affirmed his country’s commitment to continuing to support the Lebanese army, due to the need to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 for Lebanon to regain its sovereignty.

The 2006 resolution called for the cessation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel at the time, and the establishment of a weapons-free zone between the Blue Line (which marks the lines of Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000) and the Litani River in southern Lebanon, with the exception of the Lebanese army and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

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Sheikh Mohammed affirmed the importance of implementing the ceasefire agreement and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the South. In this context, he expressed Doha’s rejection of “Israel’s violations of the ceasefire agreement and the Lebanese airspace, underscoring the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.”

In the past week, the Israeli army has intensified its attacks on villages in southern Lebanon, coinciding with the defiance of their residents and their insistence on returning to their homes since dawn on 26 January. That was the date set by the ceasefire agreement for the army to complete its withdrawal from the territories involved in the latest war.

On 26 January, the White House announced the extension of the ceasefire agreement arrangements between Lebanon and Israel until 18 February, and the start of US-mediated talks on the return of Lebanese prisoners held by the occupation state since 7 October, 2023.

This extension means that Israel has until 18 February to complete the withdrawal of its forces from southern Lebanon.

The ceasefire ended the exchange of shelling between the Israeli army and Hezbollah that began on 8 October, 2023, and turned into a full-scale war on 23 September last year. Since the agreement came into effect, the Israeli army has committed at least 672 violations, resulting in dozens of deaths and injuries in Lebanon, most of them civilians, including women and children.

As well as meeting Aoun, who was elected president in early January, Sheikh Mohammed met caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Prime Minister-elect Nawaf Salam and parliament speaker Nabih Berri.

Berri thanked the State of Qatar “for its constant support for Lebanon on various levels, including humanitarian aid and development.”

He briefed the Qatari official on the Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement and UN Resolution 1701, stressing that he will provide him with detailed documentation of all daily Israeli violations and breaches of the ceasefire provisions.

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