PARIS (Reuters) – France has put together a proposal for United Nations peacekeepers, including French troops, replace Israeli forces at key points to ensure those forces leave Lebanon by a February 18 deadline, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Thursday.
Israel’s public broadcaster said on Wednesday the U.S. had authorised a “long term” Israeli troop presence in southern Lebanon, after sources told Reuters Israel had sought an extension to a Feb. 18 deadline to withdraw its forces.
Under a truce deal brokered by Washington in November, Israeli troops were granted 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon where they had waged a ground offensive against fighters from Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah since early October.
Hezbollah combatants were to leave the zone and Lebanese troops were to deploy in the area within the same period.
“We have worked to formulate a proposal that can satisfy the security expectations of Israel which planned to stay longer at certain points on the blue line,” Barrot told reporters after a conference on Syria in Paris.
He said that the proposal would see UNIFIL peacekeepers, including French forces, substituting Israeli forces at observation points and that the United Nations backed the idea.
“It is now up to us to convince the Israelis that this solution is likely to allow a complete and final withdrawal,” Barrot said.
The initial deadline has already been extended from January 26 until February 18. A Lebanese official and a foreign diplomat in Lebanon told Reuters on Wednesday that Israel had now asked to remain in five posts in the south for a further 10 days.
(Reporting by John Irish)
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