Lebanese Media: West Pushing for Hezbollah-Free Buffer Zone in Southern Lebanon

France's Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, is presently in Lebanon and reportedly expressing a general western desire for the implementation of UN Security Resolution 1701. Western countries are also pushing for the creation of a Hezbollah free "buffer zone" on the Israel-Lebanon border.

The Lebanese news portal Naharnet reported today (Thursday) that France's Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon is in Lebanon pressing for the implementation of UN Security Resolution 1701, which calls among other things for the disarmament of groups other than the official Lebanese Army in southern Lebanon - including Hezbollah.

Informed sources speaking to the Lebanese paper al-Akhbar stated that western sources in general are talking with Lebanese political leaders about creating a buffer zone at the Israeli border behind which Hezbollah's elite forces would retreat. This effort may include a future political and media campaign by Hezbollah's rivals in favor of this move.

The paper said that this French and western effort comes to assist Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has been told by civilian evacuees from the north that they will not return home without solid assurances that Hezbollah is no longer on the border and no longer poses an October 7-style threat to their communities.