Lebanon asked US, France to press Israel to halt truce breaches: Sources tell Reuters

Top Lebanese officials have urged Washington and Paris to press Israel to uphold a ceasefire, after dozens of military operations on Lebanese soil that Beirut has deemed violations, two senior Lebanese political sources told Reuters Tuesday.

Deadly Israeli strikes on south Lebanon and Hezbollah rocket launches on an Israeli military post on Monday have put a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between the two in an increasingly fragile position less than a week after it came into effect.

Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, a close Hezbollah ally who negotiated the deal on behalf of Lebanon, spoke to officials at the White House and French presidency late Monday and expressed concern about the state of the ceasefire, the sources said.

Neither the French presidency nor the foreign ministry were immediately available to comment. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot spoke to his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar on Monday, saying both sides should adhere to the ceasefire.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters on Monday that the ceasefire "is holding" and that the U.S. had "anticipated that there might be violations."

Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that France's representative to the monitoring committee, General Guillaume Ponchin, will arrive in Beirut on Wednesday and that the committee would hold its first meeting on Thursday.


Reuters